With Your Shadow Stitched to Your Heels
by Adjust The Tip
Summary: The Grimm are changing, evolving, gathering, and they pay absolutely no mind to humanity's time of peace. Meanwhile, Jaune Arc trains tirelessly, preparing for a career as hunter, unaware that his team would be called upon far sooner than anticipated. Teams JNPR, RWBY, and a newly impassioned team CRDL are sent on a joint mission, outside of the protection of Vale's walls.
1. Self Help

Arc 1, Chapter 1

Self Help

* * *

Jaune Arc brought the weight down again, pausing just before it brushed against his chest. He held it for a beat and then exhaled slowly, forcing the bar and its payload upward while his muscles screamed out in protest. The ache was short lived. Almost immediately his aura hummed in response, replacing the hurt with a soothing warmth.

"Ten," he sighed, placing the bar back down on the rack with a thud.

Aura - the projection of an individual's very soul - actively worked to mend injuries, which, luckily for Jaune, included rebuilding torn muscle. As long as that personalized inner light didn't run out, a hunter could potentially work on muscle training indefinitely. So, deciding to make good use of his own generous amount of the stuff, Jaune had recently opted to become intimately familiar with Beacon Academy's athletic facilities. Over the course of the last few months he had made considerable progress, putting on much needed muscle mass and building up his lackluster stamina to a more acceptable level.

He had more than doubled the amount of weight he could lift during any given exercise through sheer sitck-to-itiveness, and he was now easily stronger than most adults who had yet to unlock their own aura. Unfortunately, he was still well behind the majority of his classmates, even those who didn't predominantly focus on strengthening their muscles. He suspected his own teammate, Lie Ren, who concentrated on technique rather than raw stopping power, could still floor him in an arm wrestling match about as easily as a powerhouse like, say, Yang Xiao Long. For obvious reasons he had yet to test that theory. He was somewhat attached to his arms.

Even after months of work, his own lack of skill troubled the young knight, though not as much as it once had. Honestly, it was probably to be expected considering the fact that Jaune had more or less cheated his way into Beacon. His fellow soon-to-be huntsmen and huntresses all had the benefit of a few years head start on him, so he was always striving to make up the lost ground. It was an uphill battle, in terms of both academics and, of course, physical fitness.

Fortunately, the school's sports complex was extensively outfitted with every imaginable free weight and a wide assortment of complicated machines to suit any style of training regiment. Jaune suspected that the building could comfortably accommodate the entirety of the student body at once if necessary. However, at the moment, he sat inside almost entirely alone, joined by only a handful of other late night stragglers.

A glance up at a nearby clock confirmed that he had been lifting heavy things and then putting them back down far longer than he had originally intended; hours longer than anyone without the assistance of aura could be expected to last. The curriculum at Beacon - an academy meant to train the future protectors of humanity - was… understandably rigorous, meaning most students, including his own teammates, were most likely already sound asleep, exhausted by the day's activities.

 _You should be asleep too_ , a little voice in the back of his head warned.

Instead of acknowledging it, he slipped another few plates onto either end of the bar, grinning somewhat maniacally as he raised the weight well out of his comfort zone. The blond hunter was feeling uncharacteristically confident, eager to _really_ test his ever-expanding limits before calling it a night. He slipped back into position on the bench, gazing up at the now very familiar gym ceiling.

"We'll just go for one rep," he reasoned aloud to himself.

Jaune gripped the bar tightly, gritted his teeth, and went to work. His aura hummed reassuringly as he strained to bring the weight down and keep it hovering over his chest.

 _Now for the difficult part_ , he mused, arms shaking, _working against gravity_.

He grunted loudly, pushing upward with all his strength - and the bar didn't give so much as an inch. Instead it sank even lower, thumping painfully against his collarbone. The metal rod bent slightly as both ends sagged towards the floor under the heavy plates.

 _And... that would be my limit_ , Jaune realized, embarrassed and panicked in equal measure.

But, the embarrassment quickly evaporated to make room for some extra panic as the familiar warmth of his aura began to fade, first flickering, and then dying all at once, like a light bulb burning out.

He was completely spent, and at an extremely inconvenient time, to say the least. Without the extra energy that his personal "force field" afforded him Jaune couldn't even find the strength to tilt the weight off of his body to the side. So, head throbbing, lungs burning, he gave one final, ultimately ineffective shove.

 _So this is how I die_ , he thought solemnly, _killed by gym equipment_. He would have laughed, but he needed air to do that.

And suddenly, inexplicably, the weight was lifted from his chest and Jaune was taking in the most satisfying breath of his life. He'd nearly bitten his own lip off in the struggle, and the inside of his mouth was wet with blood.

"Thanks," he wheezed up at his savior, before freezing when he realized who is was.

Cardin Winchester was looking back down at him, very obviously irritated, holding the bar up… with only one arm. For one insane moment Jaune thought the sizeable huntsman was going to drop the weight back down onto his face. But thankfully Cardin instead chose to set it down on the bench, before shaking his head disapprovingly and walking off, muttering as he went. "Don't kill yourself before the Grimm get the chance to do it."

"I'll try," Jaune replied weakly, though Cardin was already out of earshot.

That helping hand, and the accompanying lack of laughter, had come as quite the unexpected surprise. Cardin Winchester and Jaune Arc were not on particularly good terms with one another, by any stretch of the imagination.

The school bully had been strangely... _subdued_ ever since a certain Grimm related episode in Forever Fall, during which Jaune had managed to save the big idiot's life. Rumor had it that the aforementioned incident - along with several merciless beatings on the practice floor - had acted as a wake-up call for Cardin. Apparently, he no longer stalked Beacon's hallways taunting the weaker students, but had instead doggedly directed all of his effort into his training regiment, and, according to some, he was often seen studying in the library as well...

Jaune adamantly refused to believe the latter until he saw it for himself.

He looked away from Cardin - who was now curling more weight than the knight would have been able to get off the ground, and made to leave - only to find himself face to face with his teammate and partner, Pyrrha Nikos. "Whoa!" He half yelped, before collecting himself and grinning sheepishly. "Don't go sneaking up on me like that, Pyrrha. One of these days _fight_ is going to kick in instead of _flight,_ you know."

His partner was sporting Beacon's school uniform, looking utterly studious with schoolbooks and notepaper under her arm and a pencil tucked picturesquely behind her ear. In comparison, Jaune was clad in only a sweat drenched tank top and a pair of shorts, and suddenly felt tragically under dressed.

So, how much of that embarrassing spectacle had she seen?

She answered his unasked question immediately. "I saw that, Jaune," she told him, looking deadly serious.

"Right? What have they been feeding Cardin?" Jaune replied, with a weak chuckle.

Pyrrha didn't look at all amused. "I know you want to improve, but you should be less reckless. You could have really hurt yourself without a spotter." She eyed the now vacant bench with apprehension.

Jaune realized then that his partner would probably have had no problem handling the weight that had nearly just executed him. He shook off a momentary pang of humiliation. That was actually something he was getting quite good at since coming to Beacon.

"I'm fine," he announced, grinning and flexing his arms to demonstrate, "See?" But, his smile quickly wilted under Pyrrha's imploring look. "Alright, alright. I'll be careful not to hurt myself from now on. I promise."

"And an Arc's never goes back on his word, or so I've heard." Pyrrha allowed herself a small smile. "Just... please don't push yourself too hard. That's all I ask."

"I'm a team leader, Pyrrha. Working ourselves half to death is in the contract," Jaune joked easily. "So… why are you still up so late?"

Pyrrha gestured at the books she was cradling. "I was at the library finishing some last minute work before class tomorrow. I realized you would probably still be here. You always are lately." There was a peculiar mix of emotions in the last sentence; somehow pride and melancholy all at once.

Jaune missed it completely. "Ugh, how intellectual of you," he said, partially deflating. There was a mountain of schoolwork waiting atop his desk back in the dorm room. "But, whatever the reason, you should really be asleep."

"So should you," Pyrrha countered.

"Alright, fair enough. Just let me fit in a jog and a shower." Jaune offered her what was hopefully a pacifying grin. "However, as team leader, I'm afraid I am hereby ordering you to go climb into your bed."

"Not without you."

Jaune quirked an eyebrow.

"Coming to the room… to sleep, I mean," Pyrrha addended hastily, suddenly very interested in adjusting the hem of her skirt. It was an unusually defenseless look for the four-time champion of the Mistral regional tournament.

Abruptly, Cardin strong-armed his way between the two, moving to deliver a dumbbell back to the appropriate rack. "Get a room," he offered brusquely, and again without waiting for a response, he stalked off to make use of a nearby machine.

Jaune recovered from his own nervous blush first. "I'll make it a short run, but I can't really afford to skip the shower."

"Of course," Pyrrha agreed with slightly more enthusiasm than the situation called for. "Come back soon."

With that brief good-bye, she hurried off and left Jaune to his cool down, alone with his thoughts. He hopped onto the nearest treadmill and, true to his word, limited himself to only a hurried five-minute run, the last thirty seconds of which were a jog to the gym showers.

Jaune understood better than most that he had a truly exceptional partner, one he was more "blessed with" than "assigned to." For all intents and purposes she was a celebrity at Beacon, famous for her skill and combat record. The red haired huntress was currently undefeated on the training floor, an absolute whirlwind of grace, dexterity, raw power, intelligence, and several other, equally impressive qualities that Jaune had yet to find matching words for.

"Strategery," He tried aloud, while scrubbing shampoo into his scalp.

Yet despite all of that Pyrrha had never once displayed even a scrap of arrogance. Instead she was courteous to the point of absurdity, offering a helping hand to anyone in need, including Jaune Arc, the talentless goofball she had ended up partnered with. Although, Jaune liked to think that, thanks to Pyrrha, he was now a moderately talented goofball. Private training sessions with her were the only thing that had kept him clinging on during his first few weeks at Beacon.

Well, that and generous assistance from the rest of his team.

Though not all too talkative, Ren was incredibly intelligent, and also astonishingly patient in the face of Jaune's ineptitude when it came to reading, writing, studying, or… any other academic ability really. Ren's partner and childhood friend Nora Valkyrie was difficult to describe; it was hard to dilute her "essence" down to a few simple words. However, Jaune _could_ say that she was unendingly enthusiastic about just about everything, and that it was contagious. With her downright suffocating positivity and bubbly nature, she would have made an excellent cheerleader. Though she also would have made an excellent football player.

Team JNPR was unique and truly exceptional… or… three-fourths of it was.

Jaune was a disappointing leader. That wasn't exactly a secret. He was commanding a group of individual's who would be much better off with a competent, actually qualified hunter calling the shots. Those constant, needling feelings of guilt were the driving force behind his recent training binge. After some prodding, Pyrrha had begrudgingly confirmed that he needed a more solid foundation to build up from, before he could move on to more advanced fighting techniques. He needed to get into proper physical shape. Unfortunately, this meant that his rooftop practices with Pyrrha were now limited to only one or two sessions per week, sometimes fewer…

Jaune stepped out of the shower, toweled off, and pulled his own Beacon uniform out of his gym bag. Once fully clothed, he made his way out of the sports complex and started towards Beacon's first year dorms. He yawned loudly and, all at once, the enormity of how tired he was cracked him over the head.

It would be great to fall into a bed.

As it turned out, he happened upon one more quickly than he had been expecting, just outside of his dorm room door in the hallway. However, this particular bed seemed to be taken... quite literally. Yang Xiao Long and her very worried looking little sister, Ruby Rose, were in the process of carrying the heavy piece of furniture out of their room, when they noticed Jaune approaching. Both girls were in their pajamas, but otherwise looked far from ready to go to sleep.

"Hey, Jaune! You didn't see anything," Yang announced cheerfully, strolling towards him. "Right?" she asked sweetly, the threat of violence very tangible in the lone syllable.

The knight's gaze bounced between Yang's violet eyes and her ample chest, once, twice, a third time. _Make your decision Arc_ , the voice in his head mentally reprimanded. He settled on looking just over the girl's shoulder at Ruby, who gave him a smile and a small wave.

This view also gave Jaune a better look at the runaway bed. From the snow-white hair barely visible over the top of the covers, it seemed that Weiss Schnee was the occupant, sound asleep and unaware that… apparently, the movers had arrived...

"I didn't see anything," Jaune agreed wearily.

"Very good decision." Yang smiled and patted him on the shoulder.

"She's going to be soooo mad, Yang," Ruby said in an anxious whisper.

"Really?" Yang asked with a puzzled look. "I've never known Weiss to overreact."

"So, what am I 'not seeing' right here exactly?" Jaune asked, not sure if he really wanted to know.

"Ms. Schnee has been complaining about how we take too long to get ready and make her run late every morning," Yang explained (while Ruby whined nervously), "so we're kindly moving her to the classroom early, so she'll definitely be there on time tomorrow." She grinned. "Care to help?"

Jaune opened his mouth to speak, looked from Yang to Ruby to the bundle of blankets that was Weiss, closed his mouth again, and about-faced to open his own door. He wanted nothing to do with this one. His earlier assumption that most of Beacon's students were asleep was clearly inaccurate. This school was insane.

"G'night ladies," he yawned as he stepped inside of his room. "Have fun."

"Goodnight, Jaune" Ruby replied, still keeping her voice low as not to wake Weiss.

"Night!" Yang yelled after him.


	2. Background Noise

Arc 1, Chapter 2

Background Noise

* * *

Jaune Arc anxiously awaited his fate.

The knight was trapped like a rat, cornered within the office of Professor Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon Academy. He was making a concerted effort to appear perfectly at ease, despite the watchful gaze of Ozpin's right hand woman, Professor Glynda Goodwitch. The austere huntress appeared to stand sentinel for no real reason other than to ensure that Jaune didn't make a desperate sprint for the exit. Admittedly, it was an idea that he had considered once or twice already.

This was, after all, the very situation Jaune had been dreading since the moment he first set foot on the campus, and alarm bells were clamoring in his head, urging him to flee.

Only twenty minutes earlier, at the break of dawn, his scroll had received a message, beeping and wailing obstinately enough to shake him from a particularly enjoyable dream. Still muddled, he had pulled the device into bed, dropped it on his face twice, and then managed to tap the blinking display.

Unbidden panic had followed, as the proper pieces clicked into place within his exhausted brain, and he realized that the missive had come directly from Ozpin.

 _Mr. Arc, please report to my office immediately._

 _-Professor Ozpin_

That was it, the message in its entirety.

The lack of information was the most worrying part, especially considering that Jaune knew of only one reason the headmaster would want to speak with him directly. It was more than likely that he had been found out, that Ozpin was aware of his doctored transcripts.

All but diving out of bed, Jaune had quickly changed out of his pajamas and back into his school uniform, gathering all the articles he had left scattered around his section of the room. One of his shoes was on his foot and laced up in seconds, while the other took him a puzzlingly long time to disentangle, slip on, and then re-knot. Both, however, ended up on the wrong foot initially. He then spent a few minutes deliberating over his untidy hair in the bathroom mirror before deciding that a more professional appearance would probably do little to sway the headmaster's opinions on such a serious matter anyway. He was about as ready as he was going to get...

... _to go get kicked out_ , the voice in his head finished the thought for him.

He was going to be expelled from Beacon. In like five minutes.

The realization hit home all too suddenly, like a brick dropping down his throat and into his stomach.

This sort of offense couldn't possibly end with just a slap on the wrist. Of course, the teachers were going to recognize his ineptitude and urge the headmaster to more closely examine his paperwork. In hindsight, that much should have been obvious. This 'genius' plan had always been doomed to fail eventually.

His career as a huntsman was ending before it even began, and in what might be the least heroic way imaginable.

Though he felt far from ready to begin his walk of shame, Jaune couldn't conjure up any acceptable reason to stall for more time. The "immediately" tacked on to the end of Ozpin's message hadn't left much room for interpretation. So, with a deep breath, he made his way over to his door.

"Wish me luck, guys," he whispered to his sleeping teammates, "I'm going to need it."

Nora snorted loudly in response.

"Thanks." He stepped out into the hallway.

One nerve-racking stroll and claustrophobic elevator ride later, Jaune had arrived at Ozpin's office - only to find it lacking Ozpin.

Instead, Professor Goodwitch had been waiting inside to greet him with a curt, "Hello, Mr. Arc." Her welcome had revealed exactly nothing about the nature of the meeting. "The headmaster will be back in just a moment," she continued, nodding at a vacant chair in front of Ozpin's desk, which Jaune had hastily obeyed to sit in.

The minutes since had been nothing short of excruciating.

If the office's clock tower motif was meant to be distracting, with its chugging gears, complex moving pieces, and obnoxiously loud ticking pendulum, then it certainly had the desired effect. Jaune could hardly keep inside of his own head long enough to think, let alone come up with an explanation for the crime he was about to be accused of.

 _A crime you're guilty of_ , the little voice in his head helpfully reminded him.

The knight was no nearer to grasping a way out of the situation when the office doors opened behind him. It was now or never, he decided. He steeled his resolve, stood, and turned to face the Headmaster. "Sir, I would just like to say-" he began assertively.

The man in question stepped inside, carrying two folding chairs under one arm and his distinctive cane in the opposite hand. Ruby Rose followed at his heels, looking downright cheerful despite the hour, and the prominent bags under her eyes.

"You got a message too, Jaune?" the young girl asked curiously.

"You were saying, Mr. Arc?" Ozpin urged, as calm as ever.

"-absolutely nothing until I hear what's going on," Jaune finished his sentence lamely, returning to his seat.

"That might be best," Ozpin said with a small smile. He set the two chairs down, one on either side of Jaune, and gestured for Ruby to sit. She took her place beside the knight and waited patiently.

"Never enough seats in here... Ah, I'll explain the reason I called you both in just a moment. I'm actually expecting one more student," Ozpin explained, sitting down behind his desk, opposite the young huntsman and huntress. "Please, by all means, make yourselves at home," he added absently, shifting through a stack of papers on his desk, pulling out a few important looking sheets, and scrutinizing them closely.

His mood now tremendously improved, Jaune took Ozpin up on his offer, seizing a handful of candy out of a glass bowl on his desk. He offered one to Ruby and then popped the rest into his mouth all at once. Suddenly, he wasn't _quite_ so certain that this meeting was about his transcripts at all. If it was, why would the headmaster call in Ruby, who knew nothing about that particular subject? Jaune found that he was allowing himself the small hope that, come tomorrow, he might still be attending Beacon.

Leaning over to the hooded girl, he whispered, "Why the urgent message? And who is the other student we're waiting on?"

"I'm not sure and I'm not sure," Ruby answered, "I got a message from Professor Ozpin a few minutes ago, and then I bumped into him on the way up here. I know as much as you do."

Jaune nodded thoughtfully, and then he grinned. "So is Weiss still sleeping in the classr-"

Ruby's hand shot up with frightening speed and clamped over his mouth. She had a look of utter panic on her face, as she nervously risked a glance up at Ozpin. The headmaster, however, was still examining some important looking documents, and appeared not to have heard them over the ambient noises of his own office.

"Yes." Ruby replied very firmly, before removing her hand.

Jaune chuckled, but the hooded girl remained stricken, obviously contemplating the fallout of the prank. It was no secret that Weiss had something of a quick temper. The knight did not envy the person who ended up bearing the brunt of the heiress's anger in the morning.

At just that moment, the office doors opened once again, prompting all of the room's occupants to look up in unison.

Ozpin peered up over the top of his documents. "Hello, Mr. Winchester."

"Good morning, Professor," Cardin replied, stressing the word "morning" bitterly.

He stepped inside, pausing briefly to shoot Jaune and Ruby a dirty look, before strolling over to the only available seat with deliberate slowness. He dropped into the folding chair, which protested under his weight, stretched his arms above his head theatrically, and let out a long, drawn out yawn.

Ozpin observed the display all but impassively. Behind him Glynda clicked her tongue in disapproval, her grip on her riding crop tightening discernibly.

"I think it best that we get right to the matter at hand," Ozpin declared after a moment, and then continued with pause. "There is a... somewhat extraordinary gathering of Grimm around the borders of the Kingdom of Vale."

The headmaster let the words linger in the air for a moment, presumably for dramatic effect.

Ruby immediately saw to it that they had none.

"So... you woke us up because Grimm are attacking the Kingdom, Professor?" she asked, confused. "Don't they always do that... like all the time?"

Jaune couldn't help but agree. It wasn't exactly breaking news that the creatures of Grimm were throwing themselves against the walls of humanity's remaining strongholds with... some frequency. They had been doing just that for as long as humanity had existed...

"Indeed, Ms. Rose." Ozpin agreed pleasantly. "However, very recently, the situation has changed somewhat." He picked up a mug from his desk and sipped from it. "Over the last few days, Grimm have been congregating in numbers… far greater than anything the Kingdom of Vale has ever experienced, and it began without any advanced warning from our scouts. As I'm sure you can imagine, each and every available huntsman and huntress is being assembled and stationed at key locations around the circumference of the Kingdom as a precaution, and word has been sent to Atlas, Vacuo, and Mistral. Vale's defenses are stressed, but they are holding, as they always have. The Grimm are not currently arriving in numbers impossible to defend against."

Jaune didn't miss the key word, "currently". Enough Grimm to stress Vale's rather formidable defenses? Enough Grimm to require a reorganization of all active hunters? The knight was no expert on military combat (though he was probably supposed to be by now), but that sounded like... well... a lot of Grimm.

The seriousness of the situation had apparently also dawned on Ruby, who was now shifting excitedly in her seat. Even Cardin was listening attentively, a display very unlike him.

"Why are there so many more Grimm than usual?" Jaune asked nervously.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Ozpin replied. "Everything was perfectly normal… until it wasn't."

"Um… so are we being sent to help?" Jaune guessed, dreading the answer.

"No, Mr. Arc," Ozpin dismissed the question and carried on. "When I say all available huntsman and huntresses, that does, unfortunately, include students from Beacon, but only upperclassmen teams with a wealth of experience in the field. Teams RWBY, JNPR, and CRDL do not meet the qualifications to begin working officially, and will not be called upon - unless the situation becomes… exceptionally dire."

Jaune sighed in relief, Ruby bit her lip, apparently disappointed, and Cardin may as well have been carved from stone for all the emotion he displayed.

"I have no doubt that this news will travel... However, the Council is doing what little can be done to limit the spread of information with the goal of preventing needless panic. An entire population, trapped and terrified, would do nothing but draw the Grimm in even greater numbers. An unwelcome prospect, I'm sure you will all agree. For this reason, I must ask that you three keep everything mentioned here today to yourselves. Share this information only with your teammates."

Another sip of coffee acted as punctuation.

"By now I imagine that you three are wondering why I'm telling you all of this. Mr. Arc, Ms. Rose, Mr. Winchester," Ozpin addressed each team leader individually as he spoke. "Allow me to first ask a simple question…how prepared do each of you feel that your teams are for an unmonitored assignment in the field?"

"We're ready," Cardin answered almost before Ozpin had finished speaking, momentarily taking aback even the headmaster.

"Team RWBY is ready too, Professor," Ruby followed up almost immediately, nodding vigorously. "Just tell us what to do."

And suddenly, all eyes were on Jaune.

 _It just wouldn't do to ruin this mood_ , the little voice in his head noted.

He sighed. "I would trust my teammates with my life, sir. They're more than ready." To be fair, that much was entirely true. Jaune just wasn't sure if he was ready, but there was no reason to tell Ozpin that.

Ozpin nodded, apparently satisfied. Behind him Professor Goodwitch smiled proudly.

"As I have already explained, the senior half of Beacon's student body, as well as the vast majority of my teaching staff, have been… appropriated by the Council for other purposes related to the increased Grimm attacks. Teams RWBY and JNPR are, far and away, two of the most talented teams in their year, and the members of team CRDL have displayed a level of growth over the past few months, that is nothing short of astounding. This is due to your leadership I assume, Mr. Winchester?"

"We're all working hard, professor," Cardin answered matter-of-factly, still not displaying even a flicker of emotion.

 _Humble?_ Jaune thought, dumbstruck. _What did this guy do with the real Cardin?_

Ozpin nodded and continued, "I'm planning to send your teams on an intelligence gathering operation – but, rest assured. I believe this mission to be well within your capabilities… or we would not be having this conversation. Under normal circumstances I would send one team of hunters, perhaps even a single pair, but the council has neglected to allow me… any resources in this particular instance." If that fact made Ozpin angry, it didn't show on his face.

"Why is that, professor?" Ruby asked for all three of them.

"They don't consider what I have in mind to be of much importance - given current events."

Ruby cocked her head to the side.

"Immediately upon discovering the hordes of Grimm amassing near the boundaries of the kingdom, Vale's military made every effort to evacuate nearby villages, or, at least, those in which an evacuation was feasible. Unfortunately, the unprecedented speed with which our enemy appeared meant that the results of the rescue operation were… far from satisfactory." Ozpin grimaced. "However, the inhabitants of those few villages airlifted to safety told some very interesting tales. There were several isolated reports of a never before seen variety of Grimm. And _that_ is the reason I have called you here today."

Ozpin waited once again, gauging the reactions of his students.

"Do you think this new species is related to the increasing number of Grimm," Jaune endeavored, "because they appeared at about the same time?"

"I certainly think that every possibility is worth looking into, Mr. Arc," Ozpin acknowledged, "The Council, on the other hand, does not. They put very little faith in the stories of 'a few traumatized villagers' and have declined to address the situation until things are less… hectic."

Cardin grinned. "So what you're saying is, they won't give you valuable resources so you can investigate a shot in the dark, so now we're going to find this Grimm and take some notes for you, just on the off chance that it happens to be a threat."

Glynda shot the bully a look that could peel paint, but remained silent.

"Well put," Ozpin replied cheerfully, before quickly killing his smile. "Your teams will be working kilometers out from the wall, away from the gathering horde of Grimm. It is also an area that has, historically, had a rather limited Grimm population. But, you will still be outside of the protection of the kingdom. This mission is strictly voluntary. If any of you does not wish to accept, you need only say so."

Ozpin waited patiently.

None of the students spoke, though Jaune muffled a whine at the back of his throat.

"Excellent." The headmaster rose to his feet. "Now that the three of you are up to speed, you are free to go. A more detailed mission briefing will be sent to your scrolls shortly. You will be leaving some time within the week, after I've made arrangements for transportation and gotten my hands on the… necessary details."

Ozpin gestured to the door.

"Naturally, you are all exempt from attending classes. Prepare however you see fit. I will speak to you all again before you depart."

The students nodded and filed obediently out of the room, into the elevator. The ride down to ground floor passed in uncomfortable silence. Jaune debated cracking a joke or trying for some casual conversation, if only to relieve his own anxiety, but for once words failed him. When they reached the ground floor, Cardin hurried outside and down the front steps at a brisk pace, leaving Jaune and Ruby in his wake. That suited the two of them just fine.

Morning classes still wouldn't be beginning for several hours, so Beacon's campus was deathly still. It looked almost unrecognizable without crowds of bustling students. With the excitement of the meeting behind him, Jaune was, quite frankly, ready to collapse into bed all over again. He couldn't possibly have gotten more than an hour or two of sleep, and Ruby had probably managed even less, given her late night shenanigans with Yang.

As if on cue, the small girl yawned loudly.

Somewhere deep in his frazzled brain, Jaune was vaguely aware that he still had a lot of questions, but he couldn't quite manage to give any of them form at the moment. It felt as though he had been rushed in and then out of Ozpin's office without being given enough time to actually process what was happening.

He was… going on a mission soon… His first mission.

"We can do this," Ruby said with sudden enthusiasm, shaking her head back and forth in an attempt to keep herself awake.

Jaune wasn't quite sure if the words were meant for him, but he replied anyway. "I hope so..."

Of course, the idea of being sent on an actual mission - and in only a few days - had Jaune's insides in a tangled knot of dread. If he had been awake enough to feel anything at all, he imagined he would be feeling extremely worried right about now.

Not to mention the fact that an enormous gathering of of Grimm was currently scratching at the walls of Vale. That was hardly a comforting thought. Jaune wondered if the threat might actually be worse than Ozpin had let on, that the headmaster's unshakable calm might have been an act meant to put the three team leaders at ease. He desperately hoped not. If that were the case and the other kingdoms didn't react quickly enough, it could potentially mean the breach of one of the four safe havens humanity had left on Remnant. The sheer number of lives ruined and lost would be-

 _Stop_ , he thought firmly.

Like all hunters, he had been trained to eliminate those sorts of thoughts as they came, to put them out of his mind, to stifle the negativity before it could even begin. It would only attract more Grimm, or so he had been told time and time again during nearly every lecture at Beacon. Negative emotions would lead the monsters right to you, and the last thing Vale needed at the moment was more monsters.

Besides, Jaune reasoned, Ozpin wasn't too worried about the situation if he was sending perfectly good fighters away on reconnaissance missions…

The knight stopped walking abruptly, nearly causing Ruby to bump into him.

 _Oh dear lord_ , he thought, _I'm... I'm going to be working with Cardin in the field..._


	3. The Storm Before the Storm

Arc 1, Chapter 3

Storm Before the Storm

* * *

The following morning, Jaune delivered the news of their impending assignment to the NPR of team JNPR. They listened to what he had to say, all rapt attention and silent composure. To be fair, Ren had always managed 'silent' well enough, but even Nora was quick to quiet down and focus when she heard the determination (and worry) in her leader's voice. No one thought to question his decision to accept the mission (though, personally, he was still second-guessing it), and they all unanimously agreed to immediately begin preparing whatever they might need for an extended trek through the wilderness.

The team seemed calm, yet fiercely determined. It was a sight to behold, and damn if it didn't make Jaune feel like the leader he wasn't - for a moment.

And then team RWBY knocked on their door.

As soon as Jaune opened it, Yang came strolling in as if she owned the place, casually falling down flat onto his bed, her arms crossed behind her head. Ruby and Blake followed, offering cheerful greetings and apologetic smiles. Weiss stepped inside last.

Jaune hoped that no one noticed the way his gaze lingered on Weiss slightly longer than it had the other visitors. It was frustrating, but he still had some trouble keeping his head on straight when he was in her presence – even though he had already thoroughly mangled any opportunity he may have had with her.

At the moment, Weiss Schnee and Neptune Vasilias of team SSSN were, for all intents and purposes, an item, although they had yet to declare as much out loud.

Of course, Jaune wished them the best, and he had no intentions of continuing his misguided attempts at romancing, but… feelings didn't just disappear overnight. Also, he was fairly sure she hated him, so whenever they ended up alone together for any reason... well, you could cut the tension with a hammer.

"Did you share the good news?" Ruby asked cheerfully, drawing his attention.

"I just did, yeah," Jaune replied. "I can... hardly wait." He wondered why no one else seemed terrified.

As always, Pyrrha was quick to reassure her leader. "You're going to be fine, Jaune. You've been working really hard. You've greatly improved. Consider this trip your opportunity to show it."

Somehow, it really did seem like she meant what she said. Jaune decided that his partner was either unrealistically optimistic or a very skilled liar. Either way, the knight did feel slightly better, so he mustered up a smile, which the red-head gladly returned.

"Alright, alright," Yang interrupted, bouncing back up to her feet. "So, now that we're all on the same page-"

"Here it comes," Ruby and Blake sighed in unison.

Yang shot them an angry look, and then turned to team JNPR. "So, as you all know, Ozpin said that we don't actually leave until some time later this week, which means that tonight we will be having a… small party to celebrate our first successful mission!" When the group failed to react, she added, "And it is compulsory."

"Everyone clap," Weiss said dryly. "She practiced that word in front of the mirror all morning."

With noticeable effort, Yang ignored the remark.

In an unusual turn of events, Ren was the first member of team JNPR to speak. "Shouldn't we maybe celebrate our victory… after we get back?"

"Thank you!" Ruby agreed, throwing up her arms. "We said the same thing. We haven't done anything worth celebrating yet, sis."

"We already know that we're going to nail this, so there's really no need to wait," Yang replied, waving her hand dismissively. "And, what part of compulsory aren't you getting? There's no vote here, guys and gals. This is a summons, not an invite."

Jaune felt that, in some small way, he might understand what Yang was doing.

As much as he tried not to think about it - and he really tried - it was entirely possible that... some of them wouldn't be coming home from this mission.

It was extremely unlikely, given what Ozpin had told them about the risks, but, in the end, that small possibility would always be looming over them. During a real assignment, no one arrived just in time to save you if you made a mistake. As the weakest link, the one who needed constant supervision, Jaune felt as though he understood this reality better than the talented prodigies standing all around him. Ruby and Nora in particular seemed entirely unaffected, as cheerful and energetic as always, but even Pyrrha, Weiss, and Blake were approaching this mission with mind-bogglingly calm attitudes.

Perhaps they didn't even believe that they **could** fail, or maybe they could simply smother those doubts, a testament to their training and experience.

If so, Jaune envied their confidence.

But, Yang was a special case. She might look and sound confident, but she had a little sister to worry about, and nothing could possibly make potential danger more salient than that. No level of confidence could ever quell those fears. Jaune could relate, he had sisters of his own...

This party was probably Yang's attempt to force the group to make the most of their limited time together before they started working professionally, before they started risking their lives. After all, the mortality rates for huntsmen and huntresses-

Once again, Jaune pushed those darker thoughts to the back of his mind.

It was also a great opportunity to relax, and he was going to jump at the chance as enthusiastically as possible. "I think it's an amazing idea," he volunteered.

Yang shot him an appreciative grin. "That's the spirit!"

"I'm in too!" Nora cheered, hopping to land at Jaune's side, throwing an arm over his shoulder. "Our leader has the right idea. It sounds fun."

"You had no choice," Yang reiterated, "But, yeah!"

"If Nora is in, then so is Ren," Blake quipped, while Ruby nodded sagely. Ren didn't argue.

And then there was one. "Pyrrha," Yang called out in a singsong voice, advancing on the final member of team JNPR. "You know, I heard a rumor going around that Jaune is going to be there." The blonde winked suggestively.

Pyrrha reddened slightly, but matched the brawlers smile. "Of course I'll go, Yang."

Yang clapped her hands together. "Great! We'll swing by to grab you all later tonight. I need to go make a few… er… preparations. Remember kids, pack everything you'll need for the mission right this instant. No slacking off. You won't be able to do much of anything tomorrow morning."

Jaune didn't like the sound of that.

But, before he could ask, team RWBY emptied out as quickly as they had arrived, Yang all but dragging them out in her excitement.

* * *

Jaune awoke with a crippling headache and an uncomfortably dry mouth. He sat up unsteadily, noting that he had passed out on the floor, and then looked around. The 'small' party had left team RWBY's dorm room in an astonishing state of disrepair.

An enormous, empty glass bottle rested on the room's desk.

It had most definitely contained alcohol - Jaune's pounding head could attest to that - but Yang had scraped off the label and then adamantly refused to tell anyone what was in it specifically. Apparently it was a gift from a 'friend' of hers. The previous night, the excitable blonde had proudly presented the liquor, slamming it down on the table in front of a stunned team JNPR, and announced with a shit-eating grin that it was also compulsory.

Jaune had never taken a drink in his life, and from the looks on their faces, neither had his teammates. Luckily, the less overbearing members of team RWBY had brought soda and juices to mix the alcohol with. Ruby and Blake had been cautious at best about the idea of drinking, and Weiss had outright objected… at first.

Obviously, things had gotten out of hand. Who could have guessed?

His teammates and friends all appeared to be sound asleep. They were dressed in their pajamas and scattered comically about the room, as though someone had taken the entire building and violently shaken it.

Jaune climbed to his feet, and headed immediately into the kitchenette for some water. It helped with his headache, but not much.

Apparently, Ren had been the only member of the group with the presence of mind to locate something comfortable before collapsing, and he was now lying unconscious in one of the beds, which, if Jaune remembered correctly, belonged to Weiss. The knight would need to wake his teammate before the heiress came to. She would almost certainly be angry if she discovered a boy asleep in her bed. She seemed that type.

Pyrrha, much like everyone else not named Ren, was on the floor. Her hair was pulled free from its usual ponytail and tousled amusingly, but otherwise, thankfully, she looked no worse for wear. Both of her arms were pulled in through her sleeves and hugged tight around herself, presumably for warmth, so Jaune yanked the comforter off of Yang's bed (she wasn't using it anyway) and threw it gently over his partner.

His final team member, Nora, was resting at the exact midpoint between the room's two hilariously under-utilized bunk beds. She was actually on top of Yang, with her face pressed firmly into the blonde's breasts, occasionally nuzzling from side to side, and thoroughly enjoying herself from the look of it. Somewhat impressively, Yang didn't even seem to notice the weight of another human-being on top of her.

 _The two masterminds behind last night's insanity_ , Jaune marveled to himself.

He found Ruby slumped against the wall with her red cape lifted up and over her head. She hadn't been wearing the cape, last he remembered, so he wasn't exactly sure when or why she had decided to put it on over her pajamas. Jaune tried to lift the fabric off of her face, but she was quick to whine and yank it back down - somehow without actually waking. Last night, Yang had insisted that she be the one to mix all of Ruby's drinks to make sure the young girl didn't have too much. Unfortunately, it seemed to have done very little to save the tiny huntress.

As usual, Blake was the hardest person to locate. She had curled up under a desk, in a way that, if Jaune squinted hard enough, kind of looked cat-like, he decided with a smirk. Her trademark black bow was nowhere to be seen, and Jaune realized suddenly that he was seeing her Faunus ears for the first time. As if on command, they twitched. He fought off an insane urge to touch them, fought off an equally insane urge to take a picture of them on his scroll, and then forced himself to back away before he could come up with any other strange ideas.

Lastly, there was Weiss, who from the looks of her outstretched arms, had made a respectable attempt to reach her bed, but had still run out of fuel on the floor along with everyone else. Well, almost everyone else. Jaune glanced back to Ren, eyes widening in terror, and decide that it really was for the best that Weiss hadn't reached her destination. That could have turned out badly in a whole mess of different ways...

It seemed that everyone was accounted for, and that some of them might one day recover. Jaune counted that as a win.

The room, however, still looked like a war zone. Every snack known to man had been crushed into the carpet, along with at least a gallon of spilled soft drinks. Plastic cups, some with names written on them, and some decorated only with rather obscene doodles, had been left scattered all over the floor. Napkins that looked to have been used to partially clean up a spill were slapped down on a counter, and the runoff had formed an entirely new stain on the carpet below. The room's desk lamp was knocked over, bent, but thankfully unbroken. If Jaune was remembering things correctly, Nora had wanted to wear the lampshade as a hat, but had found the device too difficult to disassemble, and quickly given up.

He chuckled. It really hurt his head.

Then Jaune turned back toward the kitchen to get more water and, in doing so, he inadvertently located Blake's missing bow. It had been pinned to the dorm room wall with a little, pink thumbtack... along with what appeared to be several bras. Four by his count.

The knight nearly snapped his own neck on the double take. That was… interesting. Why did he have no memory of that one?

He honestly put a great deal of effort into not looking at the underwear, honestly. Honestly. But, for reasons beyond his comprehension, he found himself standing next to the odd display, curious more than anything. He couldn't come up with any conceivable reason for this, aside from 'drunk teenagers'. Surely, these were all taken out of Nora's drawer or something. It was obvious that, even while drunk, no one in this room would actually take off the bras they were wearing. Right? Okay, maybe Nora, possibly Yang. But there were four here...

"Just ignore it," Jaune whispered to himself.

And then, against his better judgment, he turned to look at the ball of limbs that was Yang Xiao Long and Nora Valkyrie. Both girls were still dead asleep, snoring loudly. Nora's hands had somehow found their way up to Yang's chest, and they were doling out a disturbingly thorough massage, especially considering the fact that their owner was unconscious... One of those bras definitely belonged to Yang, Jaune decided, blushing furiously as Nora pinched something suspect between her fingers. The knight spun on his heels, doing his best to ignore the whimpering sounds.

 _The party started so normally_ , he mused, sighing exasperatedly.

Each guest had been drinking his or her own soda, making sure to add a cautious drop of alcohol to appease Yang. Feeling brave for once, Jaune had actually mixed himself the strongest drink in the room, matching what he'd seen Yang pour in and then some. This earned him a volley of cheers and wolf-whistles from Yang and Nora, and a look of utter concern from everyone else. Realistically, this might have been his last night to let loose before he went out to probably die, so he had decided that he was going to have some irresponsible fun _dammit_. Actually, that might explain the big gap in his memories where the second half of yesterday night was meant to be.

Then Nora had suggested that they all play a game of truth or dare. No one had been able to come up with any real reason to dissent. It was an innocent party game, after all. But, the pink-haired girl added an extra rule, stating that anyone who didn't want to answer a question or perform a dare just had to take a drink instead. A reasonable enough suggestion, or so Jaune had thought.

He picked up the now empty bottle and eyed it sternly. "You did this to me."

Initially the game had been fairly tame, handstands and embarrassing stories, about what the knight had been expecting. Someone ordered Nora to spend the rest of the game sitting in Ren's lap, and everyone laughed. Someone ordered Weiss to sing something, and she had done so... wonderfully. Someone asked Ruby about her first crush and she had devolved into a blushing, stammering puddle. It was all par for the course really, and Jaune was immensely thankful for every second of it. He had quickly realized that the members of both teams needed this break from schoolwork, whether they knew it or not.

Also, Yang had vigorously enabled his drinking, offering to match him drink for drink. So… that hadn't hurt his mood. Whatever it was that Yang had brought, it was less 'acquired taste' and more 'possibly used to clean car engines', but Jaune had powered through it, one cup at a time. The final tally was… a lot of cups, he assumed. The knight had known early on in the night that he was going to end up a laughable train wreck of a person, but he had expected everyone else (aside from Yang and Nora, of course) to keep a level head.

Apparently, that had not happened.

The game of truth-or-dare had progressed, and Nora and Yang's dares grew more outrageous, their questions more... invasive. Before long everyone was choosing to drink at each and every round, rather than dignify the two huntresses with a response.

Jaune was embarrassed to say that he had cheerfully joined in with the attempts to coerce the slowest drinkers (Ren, Blake, and Weiss) into picking up the pace, but he also couldn't deny that the peer pressure had fulfilled its purpose admirably. Weiss was comparatively 'nice' all night, and Ren and Blake spoke more than he had ever heard from either of them in one sitting. At some point, Yang had maneuvered herself over to the liquor, helpfully making new drinks for anyone who needed to be topped off. Suspiciously, Jaune couldn't remember much of anything after that.

But, since he had almost definitely been an integral part of the tornado that destroyed team RWBY's room, Jaune decided that he should begin cleaning up the mess. He grabbed a trash bag and threw out everything he could get off the floor without a vacuum and a mop, maneuvering around the casualties as he went. He silently righted all the skewed furniture. Then he filled a glass of water for each of his sleeping, soon to be hung-over, friends (and another for himself), leaving one near each of the prone bodies.

Jaune briefly wondered what he supposed to do with the bras nailed to the wall. It was, he felt, safe to assume that they weren't going to stay up there, so he yanked the thumbtack holding them in place, and dropped them onto the foot of Blake's bed, careful to handle them as briefly as possible. He decided that it wouldn't be quite as invasive to touch the bow, so he took that and left it on the ground, under the desk, near Blake's face.

Just as Jaune was finishing the cleanup detail, someone groaned loudly.

"Why is it so bright?" Ruby whined, her voice muffled somewhat by her cape.

"It looks like someone cut your blinds in half," Jaune replied thoughtfully.

Ruby rolled herself over, thrusting her butt in the air, and tried very unsuccessfully to squeeze herself headfirst underneath the nearest a bed. Weiss, awoken by the sound of movement, winced at the morning light, and then crawled over to her partner, pulling some of the young girl's cape over her own head. Blake sat up groggily and slammed her head on the underside of the desk.

 _Ladies and gentleman_ , Jaune thought to himself, _the finest up-and-coming team of huntresses at Beacon_. He saluted proudly.

"Let's not do that ever again," Blake complained, rubbing the top of her head and climbing unsteadily to her feet. Her hand brushed against one of her exposed ears, drawing a gasp, as she instantly shot back under the desk to locate her bow.

"Now your shy?" Weiss asked incredulously. "You had it off all night."

"How do I make the room stop spinning?" Ruby groaned.

"Water," Jaune answered, taking another gulp of his own. "I put some next to each of you. And, also, probably more sleep, if I had to guess."

"More sleep would be lovely," Weiss agreed, grabbing the cup nearest her and guzzling it. "What time is it?"

"We've only been asleep for…" Blake checked her scroll, wincing at the bright display. "Four hours."

"Really? That's it?" Weiss remarked, irritated, before slowly starting to pull herself along the floor.

By the time Jaune realized that Weiss was maneuvering toward her bed, it was already too late. She climbed up, immediately bumped nose-first into a sleeping Ren, yelped loudly, and tumbled back to the ground.

Ruby started to giggle, but it quickly turned into whimpering. "Why is Jaune fine?" she complained, "He drank the most. He was the worst."

"Was I?" Jaune asked quickly, looking to Blake for confirmation.

The Faunus nodded. Her face reddened slightly. That almost certainly wasn't a good sign...

"Is it apology worthy?" the knight inquired nervously.

"Nope," Ruby answered. "You were fun."

"Oh good," Jaune sighed in relief. "And... speaking of fun, what was up with the, uh... art piece on the wall this morning?" He gestured at where the bras had been.

Weiss replied from the floor, "I'll give you three guesses."

He smiled. "Ah. In that case, Nora is all three of my guesses."

"Full points," the heiress affirmed. "She started it."

"It was mutually assured destruction," Ruby explained, trying unsuccessfully to sit up. "Nora dared Yang to take hers off. Then, Yang dared her back. Then they both ganged up on Pyrrha. She never stood a chance..."

 _That means Pyrrha isn't wearing a bra right now_. Jaune wasn't exactly sure why his animal brain made so absolutely certain to explicitly catalog that single thought. He looked over at his sleeping partner, still snug under her blanket. "And the fourth one?" he asked.

"Fourth?" Ruby asked, puzzled.

"What the hell?" Blake exclaimed, turning away from Jaune to check down her collar. "When in the world did...?"

Ruby and Weiss snickered, though it looked like doing so caused them a great deal of distress.

Blake looked up at the hole in the wall where the underwear had been hanging, before spotting the missing articles now lying on her bed. She hurried over and grabbed her own bra, hiding it behind her back, specifically out of Jaune's sight. It wasn't like he couldn't have guessed it would be the black one though…

"I should take my team and go." Jaune offered, flashing an apologetic grin. "I think we've caused enough trouble for one day."

"I agree," Weiss replied sardonically, still on the floor next to her occupied bed.

"Ah, right," Jaune chuckled, moving to gather his fallen comrades. "Sorry, snow ange- I mean Weiss." He froze for a moment, but then quickly opted to ignore what he had just almost said. Mercifully, everyone else did the same.

Jaune got Ren up and onto his feet somehow. The drinking and the ensuing lack of sleep had not treated the poor boy well. The knight half-carried his teammate back across the hallway and eased him into his own bed, where he passed out again without a word. Then, he doubled back for Pyrrha and Nora.

When Jaune got back to RWBY's room, Blake had already climbed into her own bed, as had Weiss, who was sighing peacefully under her covers. Team leader, Ruby, however, was still face down on the floor, unable or unwilling to climb up to the top bunk.

"I'll help you in a second," Jaune called to her. "Let me take care of my girls first."

Ruby offered a silent thumbs-up, not bothering to raise her face from the carpet.

The knight glanced at Nora, who had effortlessly slept through all of the earlier commotion. She was still hard at work, absently groping away at Yang's breasts. One of her hands had actually somehow maneuvered itself underneath the blonde's shirt for a better grip. Jaune opted to grab Pyrrha first.

Upon seeing his partner's sleeping face, he immediately decided that he didn't have the heart to wake her up. So, instead, he bent down, gently put one arm beneath her neck and the other under her legs, and lifted her effortlessly. Jaune would never admit it aloud, but he kind of enjoyed holding her like this. He spent a few seconds imagining himself as a brave knight, carrying a rescued princess, like any worthwhile hero in a fairy tale. He probably wasn't going to be saving anyone any time soon, but in this one moment, he could imagine what it might be like. It felt nice.

Of course, in reality, if anyone was going to be doing the saving, it would probably be Pyrrha, saving him from the monsters. Jaune sighed sadly.

Then he spun in place and nudged Nora in the ribs with his foot. "Up and at 'em, Nora."

"Huh? What?" Nora popped upright all at once, supporting herself with one hand on each of Yang's breasts. She looked around stupidly. "Where's Ren?"

"Back at our room," Jaune chuckled, turning to show her his back. "Hop on."

Nora nodded, climbed to her feet, and jumped onto him, locking her arms around his neck, and legs around his waist like... well, like some kind of animal. Jaune couldn't quite think of which one at the moment. It was right on the tip of his tongue...

He was surprised by how little effort he needed to exert to lift both of his teammates at once. Recently, it seemed as if any small indication of his own growing strength did wonders for the knight's mood. So, with newly renewed enthusiasm in his every step, he started towards their dorm across the hall.

"I learned something last night," Nora mumbled into the crook of his neck.

"Oh, yeah?" Jaune grinned. "What?"

"If you get people drunk, they will agree to any of your dares. I won't use this power wisely. I can rule the world."

"I only ask that, once you've assumed the throne, you spare me," Jaune said, humoring her. "And, I presume that you were the one who stole Blake's bra and bow? I honestly never expected stealth from you. Very impressive."

"I stole her bra. You took the bow."

Jaune froze in the middle of the hallway, his hand outstretched for the door knob. "Come again?"

"Yup. You dared it off of her. You seemed oddly insistent on it too. I think you liked her ears."

 _I would advise that you don't ask_ , the little voice in his head chided mischievously.

"Alright. Nora, what else did I do last night?"

* * *

Jaune realized hours later that he never did go back to help Ruby into bed...


	4. Exhale on the Follow-Through

Arc 1, Chapter 4

Exhale on the Followthrough

* * *

Jaune twirled his sword, letting the hilt roll off the back of his hand, before quickly snatching it out of the air for what must have been the hundredth time. It was a nervous habit; one that he hadn't even been aware he'd even developed until this very moment. There was something especially soothing about reiterating the level of control he had over his weapon. After hours upon hours of combat practice with Pyrrha, the very thought that he might fumble and drop his sword was laughable. It would be like accidentally dropping a limb.

The sword itself was a family heirloom, christened Crocea Mors, and though it wasn't quite as flashy as the repertoire his teammates were sporting, it had been thoroughly battle tested by his great-great-grandfather, and passed down through his family for generations, so it held a certain sentimental value.

Another delicate sweep around his hand, another quick flick of the wrist, and again the sword's hilt slapped comfortably against his gloved palm with a loud snap.

 _Why are you in a drop-ship, Jaune_? The little voice in his head asked. _You know you don't belong here with everyone else_.

Ozpin had arranged for two transports, of which the school usually had quite a few on hand, but the Council had already confiscated the vast majority of them for more official purposes. It struck Jaune as quite odd that Ozpin had to haggle for the use of his own school's property, but, of course, the kingdom was in a state of emergency at the moment. This level of micromanagement by the Council wasn't unexpected, he supposed.

There were no outer doors on smaller craft like these, so Jaune kept a grip on one of the metal safety handles that lined the ceiling and leaned away from the open air. The wind whipped by fiercely, tossing his hair and clothes about, but it could do very little to interfere with his grip on Crocea Mors. Whenever a particularly powerful gust threatened to yank the sword away from him, he would simply adjust his grip or the movement of his arm to compensate. It was a conditioned response at this point, with no real thought behind it.

Another flip. _Whoosh_. Another snap. _Snap_.

The knight was the only one of the compartment's six occupants who stood on his feet, and that was only because standing ramrod straight was easiest on his roiling stomach. Most means of transportation crippled him with bouts of nausea, but flying was typically the worst. And, because he was standing, he was also the only occupant not currently strapped in with a safety harness. He took a measured step away from the edge, so that the smallest bit of turbulence didn't toss him from drop-ship.

It would be very like him to fall out and die on the way to his first mission. Come to think of it, if he survived this, he should really look into figuring out the whole 'landing strategy' thing that everyone was always ranting and raving about. Pyrrha couldn't always be waiting below him with a tarp held out after all…

His partner was currently seated to his immediate right, beside Ren and Nora. She had both hands placed in her lap, looking calm and pleasantly interested in the situation around her. In stark contrast, Nora had apparently taken the roaring wind as a challenge and had begun to shout over it, trying to communicate something or other to Ren. The boy in question was nodding or shaking his head in response to her remarks, but, as usual, had chosen not to raise his own voice.

To Jaune's left, sitting across from his own team, was Cardin and his teammate Dove Bronzewing. The drop-ships could only comfortably seat only a handful of people, so team CRDL had been split in half for the duration of the ride. The remaining team members, Russel Thrush and Sky Lark, had taken the other ship, along with team RWBY.

Cardin sat with his eyes closed, his head back on the headrest, and his arms crossed over his chest, either asleep or deep in thought. It was difficult to tell which. Either would be impressive given the wind and the roar of the ships engines. Dove was in the process of using a rag to clean his already immaculate weapon, grasping for any reason not to converse with the members of team JNPR.

Far below the ship, the surroundings were fairly uniform, densely packed forest reaching out in every direction. It was a breathtaking view to be sure, but if you took one look, then you had already seen everything there was to see. Each tiny, green pinprick tree looked the same as every other from this height. Jaune leaned slightly out the open door, firmly locking his grip on the metal handle, and looked up ahead, in the direction their transport was currently flying. He took a blast of wind to the face for his troubles, and had to blink hard while his eyes adjusted. In the quickly approaching distance there was an enormous, snow-capped mountain, demanding the attention of any onlooker as the largest landmark in sight. It dwarfed the other peaks and hills that surrounded it.

They would be landing near the base of that mountain, in a small valley.

 _Whoosh_. _Snap_.

Jaune turned his head to look back in the opposite direction, to where they had come from, at the very tall, very secure looking stone walls surrounding Vale. There were more Nevermore in the sky then he had ever seen before, all of them keeping a measured distance from the kingdom - but circling closer with each pass.

 _You are not all prepared for this_ , the voice tried reasoning again.

"Well... here I am anyway," Jaune whispered, all bravado, even when no one could hear him.

From her seat, Pyrrha was eyeing him conspicuously. Her focus flitted back and forth between his handhold and the open air outside the ship.

 _I know you were just joking about falling,_ the voice chuckled _, but your partner actually thinks you're dumb enough to go slip._

Jaune let out a sigh, and pulled himself back in from his precarious position. He swallowed hard, urging his stomach to settle down, and then maneuvered his way over to the seat next to Pyrrha. She visibly relaxed when he sat down and clicked the harness over his head.

As it turned out, the knight had now moved close enough to make out what Nora was yelling about. "What do you think are the odds that this thing gets shot down with us in it!?" she asked Ren cheerfully. "It happens in almost every movie, right!?"

Jaune gulped. _Whoosh. Snap. Whoosh. Snap._

"She's only joking," Pyrrha said, putting a calming hand on his arm.

Somehow, that didn't make Jaune feel any better. Man, he _really_ hated flying. "Nora, new topic," he ordered weakly, fighting down bile.

"Okay," she agreed, not missing a beat. "I think Ruby is trying to seduce me."

Several things happened at once.

At the announcement, Ren made an explosive noise somewhere between a cough and a snort, doubling over in a choking fit. Both Jaune and Pyrrha looked at Nora, awestruck. Meanwhile, across from JNPR, Dove's careful, repetitive cleaning of his gun-sword slowed to a crawl, though he still never looked up.

"You... what?" Pyrrha inquired eloquently.

Nora brought a thoughtful finger up to her chin. "I keep finding trails of rose petals in the hallway that lead me right back to her bed. Honestly, it's a very romantic gesture and all, but I don't, you know... swing that way. Also, there's the age difference..."

Pyrrha attempted to construct a reply. "Ruby is late for class fairly often... running... her semblance leaves a... you do realize..." She trailed off, lost for words.

Maybe five seconds ticked by. _Whoosh. Snap_.

Then Jaune started to laugh. It was only a chuckle at first, but it quickly devolved into real, honest-to-goodness mindless laughter. He felt like a madman, and he imagined he looked like one, but that tangent had been the last thing he had been expecting at that particular moment, and for some reason it had ended up blind-siding him in just the right way. Sometimes things just do.

Almost immediately Pyrrha and Ren joined in with him, giggling along, and even Dove was soon trying to hide his snickering. For a split second, Jaune thought he saw a grin flicker across Cardin's face too, but he couldn't really be sure, because he had tears in his eyes.

Nora grinned back at her audience, apparently very pleased with herself. "Feeling less nervous?" she asked, before reaching over to pat Jaune on the top of the head. "Relax a little bit, okay, team leader? You were stressing _me_ out."

"Yeah, sorry," Jaune replied, coming back down from his fit. "I'm better now."

Nora nodded. "Good. And remember, we'll be watching each others back the whole time we're down there. Okay?" She picked up her own weapon, a very large hammer she called Magnhild, reached out with it, and lightly tapped Dove on the forehead. "And you've cleaned that thing enough. Now you're just playing with it."

 _Whoosh_.

Jaune caught Crocea Mors with a final _snap_ , and slipped it back into its sheath, still grinning. The ache in the pit of his stomach was mysteriously absent.

* * *

The drop ship came in low, but not low enough for nearby Grimm to leap up and scratch at the bulkhead. The area looked clear, but no experienced pilot would ever risk touching down on hostile ground when it wasn't absolutely necessary. Unfortunately, this meant that the leap out of the transport that they were all expected to make could potentially break bones or roll an ankle, if not properly executed.

Pyrrha and Ren dropped into the clearing with jaw dropping grace, not displacing so much as a blade of grass. Nora, on the other hand, landed with a great deal more showmanship. She hit earth with all the delicacy of a cannon ball, grinning madly, pleased to be back on solid ground. Jaune jumped last, dropping into a forward roll as he landed, before pitching back up onto his feet. He hadn't been sure if he trusted himself to not break his own legs, so he'd gone with a tried and true parkour trick, backed up by his aura. Hopefully it looked cool...

Jaune quickly scanned the clearing, and then turned to Nora. "Awesome landing."

She smiled. "Thank-"

"But, absolutely no more using your aura irresponsibly. Same goes for ammunition."

She frowned. "Aw."

High above, the second drop-ship moved in, hovering in place. Its engines whipped up an uncomfortably warm maelstrom around them, flattening the surrounding wild grass. Team RWBY, Russel, and Sky all dropped to the ground as expertly as one would expect of huntsmen and huntresses in training. Behind him, Jaune heard Cardin and Dove hitting the ground as well. Well, for better or worse, they were here...

Both drop-ships hovered in place for a few moments, as their pilots confirmed that they had delivered their payloads. Then the crafts rotated one hundred and eighty degrees in place and soared off, back toward the relative safety of Vale. The three student teams watched the ships shrink to mere points in the distance, the thunder of their engines dying down to a low rumble, before eventually fading into nothing.

Of course, Jaune had known that their rides wouldn't be sticking around for the entirety of the mission – the drop-ships would be wasting precious fuel if they stayed in the air, and they were Grimm bait on the ground - but there was still something very unsettling about watching their only means of transportation fly away, leaving them out here alone, so far from… everything they knew.

On the bright side, they hadn't been shot down.

Jaune became aware of an odd rushing sound, which he quickly realized was his own blood running in his hears. Without the clamor of their transports, the surrounding forest was eerily silent. He absently scraped the heel of his boot into the dirt, just for something to listen to.

Teams JNPR, RWBY, and CRDL moved to arrange themselves in a rough circle formation, waiting patiently for the Grimm that would undoubtedly come pouncing out of the undergrowth at any moment. The drop-ships had made a hell of a lot of noise, so every monster in the vicinity was sure to come investigate.

Thirty seconds passed. Then a minute.

Just as a few of the huntsmen and huntresses were beginning to relax – albeit confusedly - there was the sound of movement in the dense foliage. A stick cracked. Something growled. Team JNPR was already facing the direction from which the noises came, so they shifted to address the threat while the other teams tentatively kept watch for any additional creatures of Grimm.

Two Beowolves paced out of the forest and into the clearing, moving low on all fours. Not yet aware that their usual prey was right in front of them, they sniffed and pawed at shrubbery, the likeness of two enormous, grotesque, ink-black wolves. Like most Grimm they sported dull, white masks composed of what appeared to be bone. The same material also jutted out of their forelegs, a mess of thick spikes poking out of from their skin.

However, unlike some of the larger, more intelligent Grimm, Beowolves were only a significant threat when they attacked in large numbers. In fact, it was rather strange to see these two traveling without any apparent pack behind them...

Jaune remembered Ozpin's words. _A rather limited Grimm population_.

The creatures raised their heads, finally smelling, or otherwise sensing in some capacity, the group of hunters. Beowolves had eyes that were an unvarying blood-red; no pupils or irises. Just two glowing, crimson dots.

Even outnumbered six to one as they were, the Beowolves wouldn't run. That seemed a constant in their behavior. They were known to attack any humans that they happened across with reckless abandon, apparently ignorant to their own mortality. A battle against a group of Beowolves didn't end until all of the monsters were dead. Or all of the hunters were.

Pyrrha raised her rifle, Milo, taking aim at the Grimm. She looked to Jaune, waiting for the order to fire.

Jaune shook his head. "Save the ammo for when we really need it. Better safe then sorry, right?"

She nodded, pleased. She had obviously been thinking the same thing, but wanted to give her leader the opportunity to make the call.

Oh, right, he was a leader... Jaune took a step forward and drew Crocia Mors, simultaneously raising his sheath, which unfolded explosively into a matching shield. He held his sword arm out horizontally, a signal ordering his team to stay back… which may have been somewhat dramatic in hindsight, but he needed to do this.

Every other individual standing in this clearing could flatten these Beowolves without breaking a sweat, and now Jaune needed to be absolutely certain that he could do the same. Or, perhaps, what he really needed was to show his team that he had learned to fight without devolving into a flailing mess. Either way, his teammates must have respected his order, because no one moved up to assist him. Everything was going as exactly planned, he realized in panic.

 _These are the weakest monsters you can find_ , the voice in his head chimed in. _Try not to fuck up_.

The first Beowolf charged, throwing up a spray of grass and dirt.

Jaune watched it as it approached, making certain to keep his eyes open this time. He held his ground and waited patiently - despite the fact that he wanted nothing more than to turn and run away. The creature would be on the his position in only a few more strides. It leapt into the air, claws aimed directly at the knight's head.

Just as Pyrrha had first taught him months ago, Jaune kept his feet properly spaced and his stance low, as he raised his shield to intercept the blow...

 _Thump._

It was such a pathetic sound, absolutely nothing like the grind of metal on metal that Jaune had grown accustomed to during practice.

The swipe had had the Grimm's full body weight behind it, yet it carried none of the impact Jaune was expecting. It hardly even jarred his shield arm. His aura hummed, as reliable as ever, liquid steel pulsing underneath his skin. Jaune pushed back against the monster, batting at it with his shield, and, much to his surprise, the Beowolf's arm snapped away explosively, leaving the creature floundering backwards off balance.

 _Something has to be wrong_ , he thought. _This is too easy._ If this were a fight with Pyrrha, Jaune would be absolutely certain that this was a trap meant to draw him in for a punishing blow… but Beowolves didn't think strategically… They couldn't.

The knight stepped in, thrusting his sword into the Beowolf with a wet squelch, and then, with a second, much more powerful blow from his shield, he threw the creature's entire body away from him, through the air. It landed with a thud, all but muffled by the wild grass, twitched once, and then stopped moving.

Jaune could hardly believe it. _Is this what everyone else feels like, all the time_?

Lost in his awe, he almost missed the second Beowolf as it charged - only a furious growl alerted him at the very last moment. He looked over to find the monster already right on top of him, a blur of black fur, teeth, drool, and rage. This time he didn't even raise his shield.

All the fear was gone, replaced with curiosity. Would this one die just as easily? Jaune waited for the obvious wind up, dodged the telegraphed swipe with a measured side step, and then lobbed the creature's head off its shoulders. The second body, sans head, collapsed in a pile at his feet.

The knight raised Crocea Mors and watched as the inky black blood, distinctive of a creature of Grimm, evaporate off of it, spiraling away into the air. Before long both of the bodies would disappear into nothing. You could say any number of horrible things about the monsters, but at least they were kind enough to be self-cleaning.

 _Wow,_ he thought. _That had been exciting._ For the first time, he actually felt - just the smallest bit - like a true huntsman.

Jaune turned back to his teammates and friends with a sudden urge to act the part. "Alright, so here's what we're doing..."


	5. About as Well as Could Be Expected

Arc 1, Chapter 5

About as Well as Could be Expected

* * *

"We all already know what we came here to do," Cardin interrupted coldly. "Don't start thinking we're going to be taking any orders from you, Arc." Meanwhile, the rest of team CRDL did what they were seemingly born to do - they stood near their enormous leader, chuckling and nodding to signal their agreement.

Pyrrha whirled around to glare at Cardin, the ghost of the smile meant for her leader, and his accomplishment, dying on her face.

Jaune's temper flared as well, but he somehow managed to keep it in check. "I just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page," he said quickly, raising his hands in mock surrender. It wasn't as though he was still afraid of the big bully, but keeping the peace seemed preferable to needlessly starting a fight.

Cardin snorted. "Well, that's really nice of you, Arc, but I think we'll be fine." He gestured over his shoulder. "We're heading east." Then he pointed at teams RWBY and JNPR. "You lot, take the west village. We'll sort out everything on our end, and you make sure to do the same. Just don't take too long. I'd like to go home as soon as possible."

Jaune was dumbstruck. Did Cardin actually believe that the rest of them might somehow slow _him_ down...?

"Is splitting up really the best idea?" Ruby inquired nervously, shrinking when everyone in the group looked to her at once. "I mean, what if… uh… _someone_ … needs help?"

Though she had obviously tried to avoid stating it explicitly, it was apparent that the tiny huntress feared for the well-being of team CRDL. And why wouldn't she? All four members had once been soundly defeated by a single Ursa Major, after all…

"We'll be fine," Cardin reiterated firmly. Then he signaled for his teammates to follow him, and together, without another word, they began walking east.

This time, no one bothered trying to stop them.

While this hadn't been the smoothest start to a mission, Jaune had to admit, it probably could have gone a lot worse. He had never actually expected Cardin to get along and play nice, so that verbal posturing hadn't really come as a great surprise. The big bully needed to turn everything into a competition, or failing that, a conflict. The knight's self-esteem had taken a bit of a beating, but that was nothing new, and if that was all it took to avoid a fight, then he was happy to make the sacrifice.

And, he realized happily, if they were splitting up, he wouldn't have to worry about Cardin and his team for a while...

Team CRDL had nearly reached the edge of the clearing - when Nora decided that she had to speak. "And we'll be running over to rescue them in roughly… ten minutes?" she announced much too loudly, adding a melodramatic sigh for good measure. Yang tried to muffle a snort of laughter with… limited success.

Cardin stopped mid-step, clenched his fists at his sides, and sucked in a breath.

"So much for avoiding a fight," Jaune groaned under his breath.

Cardin spun around to face them again, forcing his teammates to leap out of his way. "We are _not_ the same team we were in Forever Fall," he growled, scrutinizing every individual member of both team RWBY and JNPR, one by one, until eventually his gaze settled on Pyrrha. "And we are _not_ the same team that _you_ fought on the practice floor." His hand moved to his belt, brushing against the hilt of his mace. "In fact, I would be more than happy to show you all just how much we've improved."

"I think I'll pass," Pyrrha replied evenly. "This time." She smiled, and it was one of the scariest things Jaune had ever seen.

"Scared you lose this time?" Cardin taunted with a grin, taking a step forward.

Nearly every hunter in the clearing subtly adjusted their stances, inched their hands closer to their weapons preemptively…

"Yeah, no." Jaune stepped in between the two groups, making a very obvious display of putting Crocea Mors away in its sheath. "Everyone quit it. This is ridiculous." Then he turned to Cardin. "You win. We surrender. Is that what you wanted to hear? Now can we focus on the mission?"

Cardin fixed the knight with another ice cold stare - but, despite that, he drew his arm away from his mace. "Right. We can't be wasting our time on you," he agreed.

The other members of RWBY and JNPR relaxed visibly, slipping back into more causal positions, though they all kept their eyes carefully trained on team CRDL.

Pausing only to shoot Pyrrha one final glare, Cardin turned around to leave again. Dove and Russel were quick to follow suit, shifting their attention to the dense forest, watching for any signs of Grimm. Sky kept to the rear. He strolled away backwards, perfectly at ease, offering them all a grin and a playful wave, as his team disappeared into the dense undergrowth.

Jaune watched them go, glad to have all of _that_ behind him. And, he reminded himself, they had only been on the ground for two minutes.

He turned to Nora. "Maybe, try not to start any brawls from now on, alright? Please." He had meant for that to come out as an order...

"He had it coming," Nora replied, not the least bit apologetic.

"What was up with that tough guy act?" Yang asked, drawing everyone's attention to her. "Cardin's really gonna pull a muscle jerking himself off like that." She made an obscene hand motion in the air to demonstrate.

"Ew," Ruby responded quietly.

* * *

Their mission almost seemed simple.

When the dossier had arrived, the day after their party, Jaune had gone on to read and reread it until the words had lost all their meaning on the page. Then he had read it some more. It was all more or less committed to his memory now.

Their objective was to locate and study a never before seen species of Grimm. They were supposed to find it, thoroughly document its appearance and behaviors, and then, if at all possible, eliminate it. When it was summarized like that, all neat and tidy, it sounded perfectly doable.

Ozpin had taken it upon himself to personally interview the few evacuated survivors who claimed to have seen the creature, compiling a relatively detailed account of what was currently known about the target. This new Grimm wasn't tremendously different from its brethren in appearance. It sported the same black skin; a bone face mask, spikes, and protrusions; and the same haunting red eyes. However, it was bipedal, stood upright on two legs, and was described as eerily similar in proportions to a human-being. And while that was especially disturbing, it also meant that the creature wasn't particularly large, which was excellent news. When it came to the Grimm, size almost always corresponded with threat level.

That being said, nothing much was known about the creature's combat ability. Each time it had been spotted, the Grimm had opted not to attack, but to wait and observe from a distance. This appeared to signify at least some base level of intelligence. It picked and chose its fights.

The Grimm also consistently arrived prior to large-scale Beowolf attacks on villages.

Ozpin had also assembled a series of topographical maps, demonstrating the approximate locations and times of the reported sightings. A helpful red line, digitally tracing the dots, revealed a predictable path. The creature was traveling around the circumference of the kingdom of Vale, maneuvering only to meet human settlements. It wasn't moving to attack Vale directly, like every other Grimm for miles was currently doing. Instead, it was circling the kingdom, perhaps to eliminate stragglers…

Teams RWBY, JNPR, and CRDL were currently tasked with exploring two neighboring sister villages and the area surrounding them, as this was where Ozpin concluded the new Grimm would be most likely to arrive next, given its current path.

The villages were comparatively small farming and logging communities, located at either end of a small valley, east and west.

The spot in which the students had been dropped off was a landing zone, which had been cleared out and maintained by the villagers for years. It was often difficult for the kingdom to safely acquire building materials, so merchants were always willing to fly out to purchase timber from logging villages like these.

Neither village had been evacuated when the Grimm started migrating.

Neither village had a dedicated huntsman or huntress on station.

They had been declared 'non-essential' by the Council and Vale's military. In the government records Ozpin had provided, the two settlements were listed as, 42A-A and 42A-B, just short strings of alphanumeric characters. If the villagers had established an actual name for their town, it wasn't listed.

* * *

Teams RWBY and JNPR traveled west, toward their designated village, 42A-B.

They'd begun their hike through the woods with an appropriate degree of caution, but it had quickly begun to taper off. There wasn't so much as a Beowolf in sight, let alone any of the larger, less common, more dangerous creatures of Grimm. The entire group had lowered their guard somewhat, mostly relying on the exceptional hearing of their Faunus companion to warn them of potential threats. Blake traveled a distance ahead, her ears exposed, her black bow tied around her wrist.

Pyrrha took another step through the underbrush, accidentally sending an errant tree branch whipping backwards at her leader. "Sorry-" she started reflexively.

Jaune ducked under it effortlessly. "Huh? Did you say something, Pyrrha?" he asked, popping back up to meet his partners gaze.

"Oh... It was nothing," Pyrrha replied, suddenly smiling.

Yang leapt over a bush - and a startled Weiss - landing beside them. "So, how was your ride over here, guys?" she asked.

"They were out of peanuts," Nora answered unhappily.

Jaune shrugged. "It could have been worse," he admitted, picturing a fiery crash. "Thankfully, Cardin didn't talk much."

"Really?" Yang asked, surprised. "We couldn't get Sky to shut the hell up."

"About… what?" Jaune asked. None of team CRDL's other members had ever struck him as particularly talkative. He could barely remember their names most of the time.

Yang laughed. "The mission, his weapon, our weapons, the Grimm, the weather. You name it." She ducked under a low hanging branch. "If Blake hadn't been holding me back, I would have tossed him out of the ship. I don't think I could have handled another second of that."

"I think he liked you, Yang" Ruby chirped. "He was only trying to talk to you."

"Listen, little sis. You can always tell when a guy is head over heels for you by looking into his eyes," Yang declared. "So, in this case... I've honestly got no idea. His eyes never made it far above my collar."

"That's partially your fault, you know," Weiss stated judgmentally, as she used her sword, Myrtenaster, to slice through the thick foliage hanging in her path. "Have you ever even once considered, maybe... dressing for the occasion?"

Jaune risked a glance. Yang was sporting her clothing of choice; a low cut, sleeveless yellow shirt with a small jacket thrown over it, and a pair of needlessly tight black shorts. He had to admit, the outfit really didn't leave much to the imagination...

"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, Weiss," Yang replied innocently, fluttering her eyelashes.

Weiss let out a frustrated sigh, but chose to say nothing more.

Apart from Yang, every other huntsman and huntress present was clad in more environmentally appropriate gear. The school had provided them with matte black, insulated, windproof jackets, thick fleece pants, and hiking boots. The clothing could breathe well enough to remain tolerable in warmer weather, but would do wonders when it came to insulating them from the expected freezing temperatures. It wasn't all that cold at the moment, but if Ozpin's reports were correct, the temperature in this area would take a nosedive when the sun set.

Jaune knew that, even without the extra layers, the cold wouldn't really bother Yang much. Her semblance produced a great deal of heat – and sometimes actual flames – so she could easily keep warm, so long as her aura levels remained steady.

Additionally, every member of team JNPR was lugging around gloves, knitted caps, thermal blankets, sleeping bags, food rations, water, knives, a hand axe, rope, flashlights, tinder, matches and a lighter, non-lubricated condoms (to keep any rainfall from ruining the inner mechanisms of their weapons), and fully stocked medical kits; all of the materials stuffed into the bulging survival backpacks that they carried. Jaune had wanted to make absolutely certain that no member of his team was missing even the least important survival equipment.

It would never leave the confines of his brain, but Jaune rather appreciated the way the girls looked in their new hiking gear. The clothing was as far from revealing as possible, but it was still a rather pleasant, tomboyish adjustment from their usual fashion sense. He watched Ruby and Weiss skip over or around every obstacle nature threw at them, entirely undisturbed by their missing combat skirts...

 _First the cat ears, and now this?_ The voice in his head sighed. _Do you need help, Jaune? We can get you help._

Jaune ignored it, violently shaking his head to clear his thoughts.

Then he returned his attention to his own teammates. "Alright, Pyrrha, Ren, Nora," he called out. "Lets take a minute to discuss what we're going to be doing again." It never hurt to go over a plan a few dozen extra times – even a relatively simple one. Besides, they didn't have much else to do while they walked.

"Right," Pyrrha nodded, falling into step beside him. Nora and Ren also moved in from their positions on either side, joining the impromptu huddle.

Jaune pulled up the maps on his scroll, flipping to the western village, 42A-B. "When we arrive, we'll split into groups, by partner, and coordinate with team RWBY to search the entire village, eliminating any Grimm we find as we go. Once we are _absolutely_ sure the village is secure, we can start looking… for survivors." He tried not to grimace. "And, we will be breaking down doors if no one answers, so," he turned to Nora, "be ready to knock **really** hard, I guess."

Nora swooned. "I've been waiting to hear that sentence all my life."

"We also need to find a place to set up camp," Jaune continued, "the tallest building in the village, maybe... We need a clear three-hundred-and-sixty-degree field of view to keep an eye on our surroundings. It's kind of tough to judge from these photos, but none of the houses look particularly tall..."

He switched to a different aerial photo. "I've been looking through the maps, and there's a lake just north of the village." He pointed out the location. "Honestly, that might make for a suitable base camp as well. If we can find a tall enough tree to stick a lookout in, and put our backs to the water, we should be relatively safe."

"Its also a source of fresh water when we need to refill," Ren noted. "And we can bathe in the water at night when it gets took dark to continue our search."

"That would be lovely," Pyrrha remarked, considering the idea.

"Very true," Jaune agreed. It would be wonderful not smelling like sweat and grime for the duration of the trip. "We can go two at a time, while the other two keep watch. Someone make sure to remind me to pass the idea along to team RWBY. Anyway, once we've got our camp squared away-"

Nora poked her head up over Jaune's shoulder. "About the baths…"

"Yes, Nora?" he asked impatiently.

"Can Ren and I go first or…?"

Jaune rubbed his temples. "We're separating baths by gender, Nora. Obviously."

"Oh okay, gotcha," she replied. "It's just, you know, before you said we were dividing by partners so… I mean, I just assumed…"

"We're. Separating. Baths. By. Gen-"

"No, no. I've totally got it, captain. Loud and clear. It was an honest misunderstanding. Go on." She shrunk back into place, looking only the slightest bit disappointed.

"Right. We... You know what, forget it. That's all for now," Jaune said, slipping his scroll back into his pocket. He never could manage to get his team to pay attention during these meetings for very long. He wondered if they even listened to half of the strategies he came up with... "The village isn't far. Just... keep moving."

Nora nodded, suddenly cheerful once again, and took off at a sprint, nimbly dodging bushes and tree roots. It was downright astonishing the level of energy that that girl could effortlessly maintain... Ren sighed and immediately made to follow her, acting the role of silent guardian as usual.

"You might be the most patient person I have ever met," Jaune said to Ren as he passed. "How do you do it?"

Ren shrugged. "I just always have."

"You've known her longer then I have. Does... she ever get tired?"

Somewhere up ahead, Nora shouted back, "No!"

"How did she even hear that?" Pyrrha inquired curiously, not bothering to hide her amused grin.

"I…" Jaune began, before sagging over, defeated, "am already exhausted, Pyrrha." But, of course, he was smiling too.

* * *

They arrived at their destination ten minutes later. As they climbed out of the woods, they found the village within sight, a distance downhill from them.

It looked even smaller than Jaune had imagined. The tiny town consisted of maybe thirty modest wooden structures, arranged in a crude semi-circle. Someone had constructed a wooden barricade, roughly six feet tall and less than a foot thick, around the circumference of the settlement. As a preventative measure against Grimm, it was... almost laughably stopgap, but from what Jaune could see, it hadn't been damaged, and neither had any of the buildings within.

That was a good sign, right?

A quick glance around revealed the entirety of team RWBY, standing together and animatedly discussing something near the edge of the forest. Blake had her face in her palm, apparently frustrated. Weiss sounded more than a little angry...

"What's up?" Jaune asked, trotting over to the group.

Weiss answered without looking at him. "We just found what _appears to be_ a path, through the woods… to the landing site. Where we just came from!" She turned angrily on her team leader. "How did we miss this?!"

"I don't know!" Ruby cried, throwing her hands up in front of herself defensively. "I was just so excited to start the mission… I must have missed the sign..."

Jaune looked up and, sure enough, there was quite a pleasant dirt trail snaking off into the woods in the direction they had just come from. In hindsight, it seemed fairly obvious that the villagers would dig out a path to the location where they met with merchants and other traders...

"We just walked through the woods for no reason?" Yang asked, pulling a twig out of her hair, studying it, and flicking it away.

"To be fair we _all_ missed the path," Jaune chuckled, trying to comfort Ruby with a pat on the shoulder.

"Yeah, see Weiss, its not my fault!" Ruby declared confidently - while carefully moving Jaune between her and Weiss. " _Take out your shield_ ," she whispered to him.

Blake studied the display for a moment. "Jaune, you seem strangely... calm," she stated. "More calm than during Forever Fall trips. Given where we are-" She gestured at the wilderness. "-I think I expected more... high-pitched screaming, maybe?" She smiled enough to let him know she meant no real harm.

Her ears were still uncovered, Jaune noticed. He secretly hoped that that would continue to be a running theme...

He realized that he was staring and not actually responding. "Oh, um..." he replied quickly, "You know what? I actually do _feel_ calm, now that you mention it." And he realized then how true that was. He had, after all, just conquered his fears by killing them...

"Like a true leader," Yang added mischievously, sliding up behind Pyrrha and throwing an arm over her shoulder. " _Please, give me more orders, Jaune,_ " she begged in a mock impression of the redhead, while Pyrrha blushed furiously, sputtering. " _Oh, yeah. Tell me exactly what to do..."_ Then Yang turned to Jaune, still grinning. "You know, you have been filling out rather well lately," she cooed, licking her lips affectedly. "I might have to steal you for some... practice sessions of my own."

She was teasing him for a reaction, Jaune knew. And, on any other day he would have ended up exactly like Pyrrha - he always did - but not today.

He had extensively planned for this mission. He had absolutely demolished two Beowolves. For the first time since coming to Beacon, he felt like he was standing up on the same pedestal as everyone else, as an equal. He was in much too good a mood to give in to childish provocations like these, Jaune decided.

"Maybe some day," he replied patronizingly, patting Yang on the head. "Besides, I would hate to come between you and Sky."

Yang blinked several times in surprise, and then frowned. It was clear that _this_ what not the fun reaction she had been expecting.

"Now, why don't we get to work?" Jaune offered, grabbing Pyrrha by the wrist and starting toward the front gate of the village. His partner followed without a fight, her eyes wide. The knight yelled back over his shoulder, "Teams of two. Secure the perimeter. Kill all the Grimm. Any complaints? Suggestions?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Great." Jaune picked up his pace, forcing Pyrrha to do the same. Nora and Ren looked at each other for a moment, nodded knowingly and then followed, leaving team RWBY standing together in stunned silence.

"Confidence suits him," Blake said eventually, smirking at Yang, who stuck out her tongue in response.

"Try saying that while you're looking down the barrel of his guitar," Weiss replied, shuddering at the memory. But then her expression softened. "Although I suppose I do know what you're _trying_ to say. I haven't seen his teammates question him even once since we got here... I mean, we doubt Ruby all the time."

"Hey!" Ruby called out indignantly, crossing her arms. After a moment, she looked around at her team nervously. "Wait... do you guys really?"

Weiss rolled her eyes.

"I mean... he actually is filling out really well," Yang said to no one in particular.


	6. The Last Place You Look

Arc 1, Chapter 6

The Last Place You Look

* * *

For once Jaune had actually done his homework. After receiving the pre-mission briefing and discovering exactly where he and his team would be operating, the knight had made sure to spend a large chunk of his limited preparation time inside the Beacon library.

Professor Ozpin had seen to it that the team leaders wanted for nothing when it came to familiarizing themselves with the layout of the villages and the surrounding terrain. They were provided with regional maps compiled from aerial photographs, a survival manual detailing local vegetation and wildlife, and an estimation of the expected weather conditions. That sort of information was doubtless going to prove invaluable - but there were still certain variables that dry text on a screen could never hope to properly convey.

Jaune had wanted to form a better understanding of the villagers; the human beings, the people whom they would either be rescuing, or burying.

That felt important. How could it not be?

And so, he had spent hours tucked away in a quiet, secluded corner of the library, pouring over any and all possibly relevant information. One by one, scholarly studies, demographic reports, old news stories, dusty tomes written by explorers, and even works of fiction set in similar villages were mentally absorbed, and then considered. It was undeniably dull work, but Jaune came away from it thankful that he had made the effort.

It turned out that settlements outside of the protection of Vale tended to fall into one of two broad categories, depending on the reason that their inhabitants risked venturing into the wilderness. Obviously, no one would willingly place themselves - and their families - in harms way without some kind of motivation.

 **The first type** of village was typically made up of individuals who were dissatisfied with life inside of the kingdom, usually citing a lack of personal freedom as their impetus.

Within Vale, the power and influence of the council were nearly limitless. The government carefully regulated every aspect of a citizen's daily life. There was a surveillance camera on every street corner. An extensive record was kept of each and every private purchase made, no matter how insignificant. Communications, including phone calls and text, were monitored and recorded. Food and water were allocated based on the individual need of each working family, and only a limited number of businesses could acquire the prerequisite permit to even sell foodstuffs. Goods and services were assigned an appropriate, uniform price throughout the kingdom, and it could never be argued with or haggled down. Speech meant to incite civil unrest or revolutionary sentiments was dealt with promptly.

And everything ran like clockwork. Society remained relatively sustainable.

Even the smallest organizational blunders could potentially lead to a chain of events that concluded with extinction, so the council saw to it that everything remained neat and proper and orderly. A loss of privacy and certain freedoms was simply the price a person paid for guaranteed safety, and most accepted it readily.

A select few… did not. Those who willingly fled the kingdom, and all of its stringent guidelines and parameters - and its protection - tended to be only those who possessed the resources necessary to do so. In most cases it was wealthy merchants and business owners; those who held little appreciation for the restrictions in place within the walls of Vale. These individuals could leave, hire the necessary protection - freelance hunters or a small army of mercenaries - and then transport their own food, supplies, and other… less savory cargo after them, on private ships.

These communities, colloquially referred to as 'Edens', were often described as similar to a military base - one with a red-light district. They were funded entirely by civilized society's wealthy escapees. Anyone with money to spend and a list of sins to commit would receive a warm welcome.

Settlements of this type could eventually grow to reach the size of small cities, however they were relatively uncommon, with only a few notable examples across the whole of Remnant. Even with the best protection money could buy, they fell to the creatures of Grimm before stabilizing, more often than not. ****

 **The second type** of village was far more common, and far more relevant. It included the smaller villages, like 42A-A and 42A-B. Only the poor, desperate, deprived, and disadvantaged were destined for these working communities.

Those left with no other way to feed themselves and their families were forced to turn to the relatively steady, though far from lavish, living provided by a logging or mining operation. Building materials were always in demand, selling at an excellent price, however both the labor and the environment were exceptionally hazardous. The average citizen of Vale went their entire life without ever having to see a creature of Grimm in the flesh. Workers outside of the walls had to fight through the monsters on a daily basis, just to do their jobs.

Yet despite the risks, it wasn't uncommon to see entire families - including children - living together in these settlements, performing what little work could be managed, in the hopes of eventually scraping together enough money to fund a more comfortable life in Vale.

Jaune had found very few documented examples of that happening. He'd looked hard.

These villages were also disproportionately populated by Faunus.

The Faunus were essentially second-class citizens in Vale, rarely afforded the same opportunities as humans. The divide between the two groups was still tangible, a raw and gaping wound, persisting in the wake of hundreds of years worth of back and forth conflict, until it eventually culminated in the Faunus Rights Revolution. And the situation was somehow still steadily worsening. Violent White Fang activity was sparking anti-Faunus riots throughout Vale. Given that veritable powder keg of a situation, it wasn't surprising that the Faunus were increasingly resorting to this sort of dangerous work. What else could they possibly do? Where else could they go? Jaune couldn't say he approved of the White Fang's tactics, but suddenly he thought he could understand why they were lashing out so desperately...

And as disheartening as that information had been, it hadn't even been the last of the horrific trivia bites that Jaune took away from his study session.

Vale's government actively exiled a number of 'former citizens'; individuals with violent criminal records, chronic repeat offenders, and assumed terrorists. The undesirables, for lack of a better term. The Council preferred to expel anyone and everyone who disrupted their established order, rather than run the risk of establishing a centralized prison, which would naturally become a hive of negativity, attracting the Grimm. After removing these potential threats by releasing them into the unforgiving wilderness, it was a simple matter of ordering security forces to bar known criminals from entrance at Vale's outer gates.

An individual who had been exiled could then either work and earn their keep in a village community or venture off to die alone. It was hardly a difficult choice.

All things considered, Jaune had been more than satisfied with the time he spent reading, mostly because it revealed a few potential problems that he had initially failed to take into consideration. It had always been a possibility that team JNPR would step into 42A-B to find it overrun with Grimm, the ground littered with corpses. A disturbing thought, but he knew that a leader needed to be pragmatic about this sort of thing. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

However, suddenly there was a second possibility. These villages weren't necessarily filled with poor, defenseless townsfolk, as Jaune had been assuming. He wouldn't be charging in to battle to defend the innocent. The villages were populated by disenfranchised Faunus - likely with White Fang members thrown in for good measures - and some of the worst kinds of violent criminals; murderers, thieves, and rapists, all exiled by the council, could well have ended up there.

And, through their work, they had all likely become fairly adept at defending themselves.

Plenty of villagers would have good reason to despise human beings, and plenty would have good reason to despise anyone working for Vale's government... Huntsmen and huntresses, for instance. So, team JNPR was two for two. Great.

Jaune predicted that, when team JNPR arrived, they would be either eliminating a horde of invading Grimm and burying bodies, or assisting in the evacuation of some potentially dangerous, understandably disgruntled residents. He hadn't considered a third option.

When RWBY and JNPR reached 42A-B they found the gate unlocked. The village was entirely empty, a ghost town.

* * *

The knight gave the weather-worn front door a gentle nudge with the back of his hand and watched it slowly swing open, only to reveal another empty house. Every building in the village was relatively tiny. Similar to the others, this one was practically a shack, consisting of only a single eight-by-eight room. It contained an unmade bed; a leather chest, left open and filled with cheap work clothing; and a flimsy table. There were no windows.

There was also nowhere to hide - and no villagers.

This was the fifth house that Jaune had checked, and if everyone else was moving as quickly, then the entire village would likely be secured in just a matter of minutes. Jaune stepped inside the shack, running his hand over the surface of the table. There was no dust. Everyone had left somewhat recently...

"Have you found anything?" Pyrrha asked from the doorway. Her weapon was raised as a precaution, though it hardly seemed necessary. She sounded worried, as though she wanted to hear that he'd made a discovery, found a clue of some sort.

"Nothing," he replied bitterly.

They had already discovered definite signs that Grimm had made it inside the walls of the settlement. There were visible monster footprints all over the ground, as though an entire Beowolf pack had been crawling throughout the small village. There were claw marks on the conspicuously wide-open front gate.

But, Jaune wondered, if the village had been attacked, why was there a distinct lack of blood, bodies or any other signs of a battle? Any Grimm corpses would have disappeared with time, but surely the inhabitants would have taken their own fair share of casualties as well. Perhaps they had taken the fight elsewhere, but if they left some sort of trail, the knight hadn't been able to locate it. That would also beg the question, why? This position was easily the most defensible one that would be found in the area. Trying to fight Grimm out in the forest was suicide...

Jaune stepped back outside, into the sunlight, closing the door behind him. "Maybe the next house," he said.

But, there was no such luck. The preliminary search was finished quickly. There hadn't been much ground to cover. Afterward, all eight team members gathered in the center of town, none of them with much of interest to report.

"Every person in the village has completely vanished," Ruby announced perceptively, as everyone halfheartedly assembled.

Blake gestured at the Grimm tracks. "Not the word I would use. We... know what happened." She balled her fists in frustration. "We arrived too late to do any good."

"Not necessarily," Weiss interjected - before Jaune could. "There isn't enough... mess. Grimm don't carry their meals off with them, and it doesn't appear as if anyone was…" She swallowed hard. "...eaten. Not here, at any rate."

"So the villagers left," Yang proposed hopefully. "Maybe before the Grimm even got here?"

"It's possible," Jaune allowed. _But, why would they do that?_ Truthfully, he had no idea what to make of the situation, but there was no harm in remaining optimistic. "In fact, I bet that's what happened. They could have found somewhere to hide nearby."

At the thought, Ruby appeared to brighten up immediately, though a few of the others, such as Weiss, Blake, and Pyrrha, didn't seem quite as convinced. For the moment, however, they all let the assertion stand, choosing not to voice any of the doubts they had.

"We're going to be searching the entire area anyway," Jaune continue, struggling to force a touch of enthusiasm into his voice, "so, we can keep an eye out for the villagers, while we look for our target."

"Like hide and seek!" Nora announced happily.

"Like hide and seek," Pyrrha agreed with a small smile, placing an encouraging hand on the other girl's shoulder.

"We should begin looking while we still have daylight," Ren stated, looking up to the sky. The position of the sun suggested that it was just before noon, and Jaune knew it would take hours, if not days, to thoroughly canvas their surroundings.

He wasn't much looking forward to another, much, much longer, walk through the forest, but they had their orders. The new species of Grimm was supposed to be somewhere in the area; it had always been drawn toward villages. This village, and the one team CRDL were searching, were the next in line.

 _No,_ Jaune mentally corrected _. They aren't drawn to villages. They're drawn to the people inhabiting them_. But, without any people around, would the creature simply move on, skipping this location entirely? Or had the nameless Grimm already arrived, and been somehow implicit in the disappearances?

"Yup, let's get moving," Ruby voiced her agreement. "Same pairs." She threw an arm around Weiss, and pulled the girl to her side. "We can start at different ends of the village, circle outwards clockwise."

"Move slowly and be careful," Jaune added, looking directly at Nora, before turning to the rest of his team. "If anyone sees anything strange, just call us on your scroll, and everyone will come running."

"Yes, sirs!" Yang shouted, saluting and jumping to attention - causing her chest to bounce impressively. Then she turned to her partner. "C'mon, Blake. Let's go play in the woods." The Faunus girl rolled her eyes, but offered no complaints.

Then the group dispersed, each pair going their own separate direction, north, south, east, or west.

* * *

"That was awful," Ruby panted, leaning back against a tree trunk for support.

It was nearing sunset, and teams RWBY and JNPR, through their combined efforts, had accomplished exactly nothing.

Despite an entire day of searching, the only brief moment of excitement had been a run-in with another Beowolf - singular - which Jaune and Pyrrha had then easily dispatched. Other than that, the teams had managed only to wander around pointlessly for several long hours. When the sun finally began to dip in the sky, the hunters and huntresses had unanimously made the decision to put their search on hold. It would be getting dark soon, and no one, save for Blake, would be able to navigate the forest by night. They had no choice but to to continue their mission in the morning.

Jaune was exhausted. His feet were sore and his calves ached, the result of standing for hours as he navigated the overgrown, uneven, forest terrain. Near the tail end of their day-long patrol, the knight had noticed even Pyrrha was beginning to lose some of her usual energy.

At the moment, all eight students were gathered a short distance from the shore of the lake that Jaune had identified on his maps, within spitting distance of the empty village 42A-B. They had already unpacked and spread out various amenities, such as blankets, sleeping bags, and food, and were currently scattered about, dealing with the crushing disappointment, exhaustion, and boredom in their own individual styles.

Ruby sat, Cresent Rose (her scythe) resting in her lap, rhythmically thumping the back of her head against the tree behind her. Jaune watched as the little team leader reached up, attempting to yank her hood down over her head, only to realize her new jacket didn't actually have a hood. She pouted childishly and then curled up in a ball, hugging her weapon against her chest.

Weiss was cleaning off her own weapon with a cloth, after having used it to clear underbrush for the entire day. She had opted not to sit down like everyone else, but Jaune could see the way she seemed to be swaying ever so slightly on her feet, too proud to admit she was tired and frustrated.

Blake rested up above, on a low tree branch, Gambol Shroud clutched in her hand, seemingly as comfortable as she would be in a feather bed. Her eyes were closed, but an occasional twitch of her Faunus ears indicated that she was still awake, actively listening for the Grimm that they all, by now, suspected wouldn't be coming. There was a book in her free hand, but she didn't appear able to muster up the strength to open it, or her eyes for that matter.

Yang was sprawled unceremoniously on the ground, flat on her back, soaked with sweat, and grumbling miserably. She had taken off her trademark brown jacket and draped it over her face to block what little sunlight was still shining down on them. And in doing so, she had revealed her orange undershirt, though Jaune felt that 'shirt' might have been a somewhat generous term to describe the thin piece of fabric.

He watched Yang's chest rise and fall with each deep, tired breath. Up. Down. Up. Down. Up. Down.

 _Thwack!_

 _"Ouch_!" Jaune winced, looking around. His partner had swatted him in the back of the head with the broad side of Milo so hard his ears were ringing.

"I'm sorry," Pyrrha said (though the way she said it made him think she wasn't really _that_ sorry).

She was seated right behind him on the ground, absentmindedly adjusting her ponytail with a free hand. In an attempt to cool off, Pyrrha had also taken off her heavy jacket, though, of course, the tank-top she sported beneath offered significantly more coverage than did Yang's. However, that didn't quite prevent Jaune from watching a single bead of sweat trace its way down his partner's neck, slipping between her breasts...

He glanced up just in time to catch Pyrrha watching him watch. He winced again, bracing himself for another blow from Milo - but it never came. Instead Pyrrha reddened slightly and began pointedly looking elsewhere.

Jaune did the same. He shook his head, scattering... certain thoughts, much in the same way he would smother his negative emotions.

At the very edge of the the lake, Nora was sound asleep on a wooden log. She had, only a few minutes earlier, bashed a tree down with a few well-placed blows from her hammer, and then lugged the trunk down to the waterfront to use as a bench. Apparently her earlier claim that she never grew tired wasn't entirely true, because a moments later she had passed out - while still sitting up - and promptly slumped over sideways.

Ren had settled in right beside her, looking thoughtfully out at the surface of the water. The quietest member of team JNPR had never been one to let his emotions show on his face, but Jaune could still tell that the boy was physically drained by the way he carried himself. Ren had likely put in twice as much work as anyone else, considering he had to reign in Nora whenever she wandered off.

After today, Jaune felt as though they had all earned a moment to rest.

He found himself wondering if he looked quite as defeated as everyone else did, as defeated as he felt. It wasn't as though they had made any glaring mistakes since the mission began - in fact, they had been doing everything by the book. But the knight had trained to become a hunter because he wanted to slay monsters and help those in need. And so far, they had failed on both accounts. The Grimm they were supposed to kill was nowhere to be found. The villagers were missing, and the longer they remained missing, the more inclined Jaune was to believe that they were dead.

Teams RWBY and JNPR had run themselves ragged, sure, but what had it really accomplished? Nothing of any consequence, Jaune thought angrily. It was no surprise that everyone was in such a sorry state. Anyone would feel disheartened with results like these...

In a situation like this, it was obviously the responsibility of a team leader to improve morale... in any small way that they were able.

"Hey, Nora," Jaune called out.

His snoozing teammate jumped awake. "YessirI'mup," she slurred, combining all the words into one, looking around, confused.

"Do you remember what we talked about earlier, on the way to the village?"

Nora narrowed her brow in thought. "Probably," she decided after a few moments.

Jaune sighed heavily, turning to the members of team RWBY. "So... do you guys want to go swimming?" he asked as cheerfully as he could.

Nora popped straight up onto her feet, nearly knocking Ren over. "Oh, yeah! Bath time."

Every head perked up slightly, as the huntresses looked out at the lake, realization dawning. Ruby's eyes lit up with childish excitement, and even Weiss grinned despite herself. Blake dropped delicately out of her tree with a small thud and a weary smile. "Why didn't I think of that?"

It was good to see that they were so enthusiastically latching on to the distraction. They certainly needed one. Jaune glanced over his shoulder at Yang, curious as to why the most vocal member of team RWBY seemingly had nothing to say about the suggestion. _Didn't she want to swim...?_

Apparently, she did.

It took only a brief moment for the knight to decide that Yang was actually... _really_ in favor of the idea. He could tell by the way she was already well into the process of removing her clothes, having already left her jacket, gloves, bandana, socks, and boots in a little pile on the ground.

"Ah," Jaune stated in response, searching for some of the other sounds he usually used to make words and coming up short.

The brawler then made to tug her undershirt up and over her head - but Ruby quickly appeared out of thin air, in a burst of rose petals, pulling Yang's arms back down to her sides. "Hold on! Yang, stop!" she cried urgently, struggling with her older sister.

"Whaaat?" Yang demanded, drawing the word out into a long, childish whine.

"We need to set some… ground rules or something, right?" Ruby said anxiously. She disappeared in a flash, reappearing in between Ren and Jaune, one hand placed on each of their shoulders. "We've got boys here… you know?" Then she shook the two of them vigorously, as if to demonstrate that fact.

"Ruby is right," Weiss replied, shooting Jaune a sideways glance. It said quite clearly that he couldn't be trusted.

" _Why are you only looking at me_?" he demanded, incredulous. "Ren is here too _._ " As usual, Ren chose not to say anything.

"Now everyone relax," Yang announced, contending for the attention of the group. "We're all basically adults here, right?" she said reasonably. "And I know that I can't speak for the rest of you girls, but, personally, I trust Jaune and Ren. We're in hostile territory. This is a serious situation. So I believe that these two will behave appropriately, like any true professional hunter would."

"I really apprecia-" Jaune began to say.

"Having said that," Yang continued over him, this time in a low growl, as her eyes suddenly flashed crimson. "I don't much care how they behave. They can follow me down to the lake and lather me up with their bare hands, so long as it means we end this conversation and I get in the water even one second sooner." Then she moved to continue tearing off the rest of her clothes. "I'll leave the discussion of ground rules to the rest of you... I am going swimming."

No one - not even Ruby - made to stop her this time. Pyrrha and Nora walked up behind Jaune and Ren, helpfully placing their hands over the boys' eyes. Jaune could make out the sounds of Yang disrobing, running toward the lake, and then a loud splash.

Weiss sigh loudly. "Just… move away until we're done, you two."

"Make sure nothing sneaks up on us, Jaune." Pyrrha said, offering him a gentle push away from the lake.

"Will do," The knight replied, making every effort not to turn around and look out at the water. "And don't take to long. It'll be freezing soon. I want a chance to get clean... Hello...?" But the girls were all already out of earshot, moving away toward the waterfront.

Even from a distance, Jaune could hear the huntresses working their way into the shallows, shouting and splashing one another, like they were children at a public pool, rather than a group of highly trained fighters. He couldn't help but smile at the thought. It sounded like they were in much better spirits now, at least.

They were also naked... er... defenseless. This would be the least opportune time for Grimm to attack.

Thankfully, the stretch of land dividing the lake shore and the forest was almost entirely devoid of trees and bushes. It would be easy enough to spot any approaching Grimm at a distance - until the sun set entirely, at least.

"I'll take lookout," Ren said, reaching up to climb the same tree Blake had been occupying earlier. It was positioned at a comfortable midpoint between the lake and the edge of the forest, providing as perfect a line of sight as they could have wanted.

"Gotcha," Jaune replied. "Let me know if anything big and scary is coming." He put one hand on the hilt of Crocea Mors, brushing the familiar leather, as he stared into the steadily darkening tree-line.

* * *

Once again, however, absolutely nothing of interest occurred. The daylight continued to fade, as the sun slowly vanished behind the treetops, painting the sky vivid orange and then deep violet. A light breeze picked up, rustling the leaves and wild grass, and the temperature began to drop off uncomfortably. All the while, Jaune kept a careful watch, his hand never moving far from Crocea Mors, but an acceptable reason to make use of the sword never presented itself.

A short while later, Ruby, her hair still wet, approached to inform him that it was now time for the boys to take a bath.

Jaune cupped his hands and shouted the good news up to Ren, before hurrying down to lake, stopping only to grab a towel from his bag. The girls had really taken their sweet time, and if he wanted to make it out of the water without frostbite, he would need to move quickly. Even as he disrobed and took a few steps into the still mild water, he could already see his breath beginning to catch in the air in front of him.

"Tomorrow, the guys are going first," he muttered to himself.

He waded out to a spot where the water was at a comfortable waist level and did his best to wash his hair, wondering whether the action actually served any purpose without shampoo. Either way, he made do, splashing his face a few times and scrubbing himself, just as he would have done if he'd had soap on hand. He took a deep breath and submerged himself entirely underwater, held his breath for a few seconds, and then resurfaced shaking his wet hair out of his eyes.

Jaune had to admit, even despite the cold air, this was actually pretty relaxing...

Then he out looked across the lake.

For what reason, he couldn't have said. Maybe it had been sheer coincidence. Maybe he'd heard the sound of a stick snapping or bushes being forced aside. Maybe it had been the tingling sensation on the back of his neck, warning him that he wasn't quite as alone as he thought.

In any case, the reason was irrelevant. It wouldn't have changed the fact that Jaune had looked up, and found himself staring directly into a pair of luminescent crimson eyes, as they in turn peered back at him, their owner concealed within the dense foliage at the far end of the lake. It was impossible to mistake those blood-red eyes as belonging to anything other than a creature of Grimm...

As Jaune looked on, surprised, the eyes blinked once and then vanished.

After a moment, he said aloud, "That wasn't a Beowolf." And at first, he wasn't exactly sure why he knew that.

It took several seconds for his brain to catch up with his instincts. Beowolf _never_ ignored an opportunity to attack a human under any circumstances. Whichever creature of Grimm he had just seen, it had just blatantly decided against picking a fight. It was smarter than a Beowolf, at the very least.

It might even have been the Grimm their team was so desperately searching for, Jaune realized, and it was... currently fleeing...

 _Shit. H_ e needed to do something quick-

A hand clamped down on Jaune's shoulder from behind, causing him to nearly leap out of both the water and his skin, simultaneously. He spun around in panic, his heart hammering wildly in his chest, to find that it had only been Ren. His friend had finally caught up with him.

"Sorry. I was calling you. Why didn't-?" Ren began.

"Be quiet for a second," Jaune interrupted him, struggling to recollect his strewn thoughts. "I just saw a Grimm. It wasn't a Beowolf this time."

Ren grew suddenly serious. Well, suddenly more serious. "Where?" he asked.

"That direction," Jaune said hurriedly, pointing at the location where the Grimm had been standing only moments before. "I think it might be leaving. I'm going after it. I need you to run back and tell the others where I went."

"Are you certain-?" Ren tried to say.

"Go," Jaune repeated the command firmly.

Ren nodded and obeyed, turning around to swim back towards their teammates. The knight followed, paddling over to the shore and snatching up his towel, before turning and taking off at full sprint around the circumference of the lake.

"You're really going without your clothes?" Ren called after him, incredulous.

"There's no time," Jaune yelled back, wrapping the towel around his waist as he ran.


	7. Cold Cocked

Arc 1, Chapter 7 _  
_

Cold Cocked

* * *

 _This is... impressively dumb_ , the little voice in Jaune's head sighed. _And_ _I mean that whole-heartedly. I am actually impressed._

Jaune leapt over a small creek, landing in a crouch, before quickly glancing to either side. Where was the Grimm now? He was sure it had come this way...

There was movement to his right, something rustling in the bushes, and, once again, he hurried toward the disturbance. This creature was leading the knight on one ridiculous chase, and it always seemed to remain just out of his reach. And yet, through some divine miracle, he hadn't managed to lose track of it.

 _What are you planning to do if you catch it?_ the voice asked curiously.

Jaune plowed through a patch of bushes, using one hand to secure the towel around his waist, while holding the other out in front of himself protectively. It was still growing steadily darker, and he was beginning to have difficulty seeing ahead in the forest.

 _Listen, I know you're feeling just swell because you killed those two Beowolves, but this time the situation is… slightly different. Wouldn't you agree, Jaune?_

In the distance, the Grimm's silhouette appeared again, just for a moment, a blur passing behind some trees. The creature was fast, and actively avoiding Jaune instead of sticking around to fight. He knew that if he let it slip away, there was no guarantee that he and his teammates would be able find it again.

 _When you fought those Beowolves you weren't already exhausted. You had a sword and a shield. You weren't fighting in the dark. You weren't naked._

As the knight ran, he could see his breath dispersed in the air in front of him. He was still soaking wet, and droplets of water were beginning to freeze in his hair and against his exposed skin. A gentle breeze was still blowing, though now it felt more like thousands of needles pricking at his face as it whistled by.

 _If you don't get yourself eaten, you are almost certainly going to freeze to death._

That same pair of red eyes appeared again, ahead in the darkness. In response, Jaune altered his course slightly, aiming himself more readily in the direction of the creature. He had only taken a few steps towards it, when he tripped over a gnarled tree root and fell, slamming down hard and sliding a painful distance in the dirt. With a great deal of swearing and growling, he picked himself back up, trying to ignore the fresh scrapes and bruises, and immediately continued running.

 _You know how you can't see in the dark, Jaune? Well, neither can your teammates. They won't be able to find you._

After another thirty seconds or so, the knight slowed to a standstill, listening hard. Had he finally lost the Grimm? His lungs were burning with each breath of the chilly night air, and he couldn't recall ever having a muscle ache as painful as the one in his legs right now.

Then there was another noise - crunching leaves this time - very nearby. Jaune took a few cautious steps towards the sound.

 _Do you intend to fight this Grimm with your bare hands?_

As the knight traveled even deeper into the woods, the trees grew closer and closer to one another, and the underbrush grew even more unruly. Branches and thorns whipped painfully against his exposed body, forcing him to proceed more slowly.

 _What. Are. You. Doing. Here?_ the voice demanded firmly.

" _I'm completing our mission!_ " Jaune answered aloud, frustrated, talking to himself like a lunatic. " _I'm a huntsman._ "

 _No you aren't,_ the voice replied. _You're naked and alone and frightened..._

Jaune didn't get to continue his one-man argument.

Those red eyes appeared once again - only a few paces ahead. The Grimm materialized out of the shadows without so much as a whisper of sound, advancing on the knight with unbelievable quickness, bathing them both in the dull, crimson glow of its eyes.

Jaune tried to scream, but the cry caught in his throat as the creature batted him across the face. The ground jumped up to meet him, giving him a second not-so-gentle tap on the head. His vision blurred around the edges, a mess of static. He tasted dirt and blood. The knight hadn't even seen what hit him. Had that blow been a punch? A kick? A freaking head-butt? He couldn't rightly say.

 _Why don't you ever listen to me_? the voice in his head asked sadly.

The Grimm reached down, easily lifting Jaune up and off of the ground, gripping his collarbone like a vice. The knight grunted, kicking uselessly, while struggling to hold the towel around his waist - mostly because his own nakedness was the one thing his dazed mind still seemed capable of processing. The creature pulled him in very, very close, face to face. It didn't snarl or growl like a Beowolf. Instead it remained deathly silent. Merely looking at him.

The monster's worn, gray-white mask didn't cover its face entirely. The bottom half was open, which left the creature's mouth fully exposed, revealing row upon row of razor-sharp teeth. It had more teeth than it could possibly need... Jaune was currently close enough to make them out individually, to watch the Grimm's black tongue dart back and forth along them, almost snakelike. Its lips were pulled back tight around its mouth, he noticed.

It was smiling.

At the moment, Jaune was still seeing double, so the hideous sight was exactly twice as awful as it normally would have been.

A chill swept down his spine that had absolutely nothing to do with the freezing temperature. His vision stopped spinning and the pounding in his head abated somewhat, as his senses were adrenaline shocked into recalibrating themselves. The situation, and the gravity of it, dawned on him all at once.

 _Do something!_ the voice shouted.

Jaune cocked back and took a wild swing at the Grimm's head, confident that he couldn't possibly miss from such close proximity - but the creature simply extended its arm, holding the knight out farther away, and the blow came up laughably short.

 _Something… better, maybe._

Before he could come up with any more brilliant ideas, something sharp slashed him across the face. He wailed in pain, but the Grimm ignored the sound, lifting him up higher, and then slamming him back down into the ground. His shout ended abruptly, as the wind was knocked from his lungs. Again, Jaune hadn't been able to see the blow coming, until it arrived - it was much too dark to follow the Grimm's movements.

 _You need to run away, Jaune._

"Huntsmen... don't run," he grunted, as he struggled to climb back to his feet. Somehow, he actually managed it. Already he could feel blood flowing down his face, falling onto his neck and shoulders in thick, warm drops. He was hurt, though he wasn't sure how badly, and his legs were shaking violently, barely able to support his weight. He wasn't sure how much longer he would be able to stand up.

Meanwhile, the Grimm hadn't approached him. Instead, it had remained in place, passively observing his struggles - as though amused.

And that, Jaune realized, didn't make even the least bit of sense... The creature had beaten him - had him down on the ground, dead to rights. Why would it ever offer him time to recover? As far as the knight was aware, none of the creatures of Grimm ever played with their food, but what other explanation could there be? The Grimm was toying with him.

It wouldn't stop that _smiling_...

With a tiny humming sound, Jaune's aura pulsed, a gentle reminder that it was still hard at work. Suddenly, none of his numerous minor injuries hurt quite as badly as they had. Unfortunately, however, aura could do very little to assuage his gut-wrenching dread.

Jaune's eyes had finally adjusted to the darkness, enough to see a few short feet in any given direction. He caught his first real look at the monster.

Just like the villagers had claimed, the creature was disturbingly human-like in proportion, though its skin was still pitch-black and leathery, like all of the other creatures of Grimm. It appeared to have individual digits, fingers and toes, and its right hand was clawed - which explained the gash on Jaune's face. If the knight didn't include the creature's smile, than the exoskeleton that it sported was perhaps its most distinct feature. The bone fragments fused together over its skin looked a great deal less... random than the armor typical of other Grimm. This one carried an entire cohesive chest plate, including a set of ribs, and its forearms and shins were shielded by a series of overlapping plates, rather than errant spikes. It looked as though it was wearing a grisly suit of armor.

He only needed to stall until his teammates found him, Jaune reminded himself, taking a deep breath.

 _If they find you._

With a loud shout, he drove forward taking a another swing at the Grimm. Almost before he had begun moving, Jaune realized that his jab was going to be clumsy and slow. His tired legs didn't seem to want to contribute, which meant that he was delivering a punch with nearly none of his weight behind it. To make matters worse, his fingers were numb from the cold, so he couldn't quite tell whether they had folded into a proper fist or not.

As it turned out, none of that actually mattered anyway. The Grimm snatched his arm out of the air before it could even gain momentum. Ice-cold black fingers wrapped tightly around his wrist. Then the creature squeezed.

There was a sound like a stick of chalk snapping, and then Jaune could feel only white-hot pain that made stars dance in his vision. He fell to his knees, without actually making a conscious decision to do so, his left hand now dangling uselessly down at his side. Underneath the skin, he could feel bones - ones he knew shouldn't rightfully be moving - grinding up against one another. He had to bite down on his tongue to keep from howling out in agony.

When Jaune looked back up, he did his best to meet the Grimm's gaze defiantly, though it was kind of hard to see through the tears in his eyes.

 _I guess this is it,_ the voice in his head noted.

The Grimm studied the knight for a few impossibly lengthy moments, looking down at him, still smiling. _Why was it was always smiling?_

Then it did the absolute last thing that Jaune had been expecting. It turned around and began to walk away...

The knight's jaw dropped wide open, and immediately blood from the wound on his face began running down into his mouth, but hardly noticed.

 _It's just... leaving me here_ , he thought in unabashed awe, as he watched the Grimm leave, creeping back into the foliage.

In just a few more steps, the creature would melt away into the shadows, and Jaune wouldn't have to look at it anymore. He wouldn't have to think about it. In fact, he could spend the rest of his life trying to forget that he had ever even seen it. If he wanted to, he could go back to Vale, drop out of Beacon Academy, get a job in an office building, meet and eventually marry a beautiful girl, settle down and have some kids, and then pass away surrounded by family at a ripe old age...

 _That thing doesn't even consider you worth killing, Jaune,_ the voice whispered.

Or, he decided, as his temper flared, trumping his fear for an instant, he could be a _damn huntsman_ like he had always dreamed. The light of the knight's aura nearly doubled in intensity, as he, once again, climbed to his feet. He fixed his gaze on the retiring Grimm's back, and roared, " _Come back here!_ "

At that, nearly a hundred new red dots blinked into existence in the darkness, all around them...

A moment later, the snarling started. It began as a quiet rumble, but slowly it increased in volume, until the forest itself was shaking in the wake of the cacophonous outcry. _Beowolves_. Jaune recognized the familiar growls almost immediately, but he didn't want to believe his own eyes and ears. _Where on Remnant had this enormous pack come from...?_ There were _far_ too many for him to deal with on his own, not even considering the horrible state he was in.

His heart sank. Any small chance he'd had of surviving this and killing their target was definitely gone now.

The singular Grimm in question, turned and looked back over its shoulder, offering one final gruesome, crooked smile. It had never been about to let him live, the knight understood now. It had been preparing to, quite literally, throw him to the wolves.

"Maybe," Jaune mumbled nervously, "huntsmen do run... sometimes..."

He gathered up his remaining energy, turned on his heels, and did exactly that, sprinting away as quickly as his battered body would allow.

Behind him, every one of the Beowolves sprung into motion at the same time, instinctually excited by the thought of a chase. The forest virtually exploded with activity as they began their hunt.

Jaune ducked under a low hanging branch, seconds before it could take his head off and continued running, even as his broken wrist slapped agonizingly against his side. He really, really prayed that he was moving back towards the camp and his teammates, but he was, justifiably, a bit turned around. He brought his good hand up to wipe the blood out of his eyes, nearly losing his towel in the process.

A short distance behind him, the knight heard several Beowolves crash into one another and collapse, much too eager to get at their prey. The Grimm devolved into a tangle of limbs and claws and fangs, screeching the entire time. Jaune ran faster. Earlier, he had handily defeated two of these monsters, but there was absolutely no way he could handle an entire pack by himself, especially while both literally and figuratively disarmed. Running was the only viable option he had, and even that wasn't going particularly well. He was too exhausted to keep up this pace for very long...

Without warning, one of the monsters leapt at Jaune from the side, only narrowly missing his neck with a frenzied swing. He ducked under its outstretched arm, and made a sharp course adjustment, hoping to throw off some of his pursuers. It didn't sound like it worked. Another Beowolf dove in from the knight's opposite side, aiming for his legs. It succeeded only in snagging a claw on his towel, ripping the fabric away from him as it hurled by.

"Seriously?" Jaune shouted out, his voice cracking hysterically.

The voice in his head chuckled. _What? **That** was the last straw for you?_

The knight was about to attempt a mental retort, but he found himself distracted by a very steep hill. More specifically, he had fallen down a very steep hill. In the dark, he had never possessed even the slightest hope of spotting it before he ran over the edge. He tumbled down gracelessly, hitting, what felt like, every tree and bush on the way down. Through sheer luck, he ended up cartwheeling and hitting the ground at the bottom of the slope running.

A question occurred to Jaune, as he dodged around a tree and was rewarded with a resounding crack as a something slammed into it. Why had the Beowolves been waiting in the woods at that exact spot? How long had they been there, simply watching him fight that other Grimm? As far as he was aware, Beowolves only ever mindlessly threw themselves at their prey - like they were doing at this very moment. The stealth and patience that they'd displayed was totally... unnatural... given what he knew about their behavior.

He leapt over a creek, dropping to his knees as he landed on the other side. After struggling for a few seconds, he realized that he wasn't going to be able to stand up again. His legs were completely shot. An entire day of hiking, followed by a life preserving sprint, had taken a considerable toll on his body.

So, running was no longer an option then...

The situation was hopeless. Jaune knew that. But he was still going to make sure that he went down fighting. He looked around, taking solace in the fact that, as far as final stands went, there were certainly worse locations. It made for a bizarrely peaceful place to die. The little bubbling stream was...

He froze.

The knight actually recognized this creek. He had jumped over it earlier, when he had still been the one doing the chasing. Somehow, he had actually managed to find his way back towards the lake and their base camp. If he'd had only a little bit more energy, he might even have made it to his friends. The thought made him want to laugh and cry at the same time. He settled on the laugh, chuckling to himself. Who wanted to die crying?

Then, a miracle. Someone spoke right behind him. "Jaune?" It was Blake's voice.

"Blake?" he cried out breathlessly, trying hard to find her in the dark. "There are... Grimm coming." He finally spotted her glowing yellow irises, and let out a cry of relief. Just moments earlier he had been thinking about dramatic final stands and the like. Who had the time for that nonsense? He was going to live.

"Jaune..." Blake said uncertainly.

"What?" he inquired, worried by her tone. "What's wrong?" Had she somehow been hurt as well?

"You're... naked..."

The voice in his head decided to chime in again. _Oh_ yeah, _Blake can totally see in the dark, can't she?_

At just that moment, the pack of pursuing Beowolves burst wildly out of the undergrowth, easily vaulting the small river. The monsters came crashing down all around them, even as more followed, crawling over and around one another in their furious impatience.

"Get behind me," Blake yelled urgently, pulling Jaune up to his feet and shoving him, presumably towards safety. "Go!" She fired Gambol Shroud into the approaching crowd of monsters, eliciting some satisfying death howls.

The knight half stumbled in the direction Blake had pushed him, falling to his hands and knees every few steps, but fortunately none of the Grimm ever caught up to him, distracted as they were by their new opponent. He could hear controlled bursts of gunfire and growling a ways behind him, but he wasn't keen on the idea of getting involved with that mess again. If he _did_ go back, he would only be getting in Blake's way...

" _Blake!?_ " A voice that could only be Ruby shouted, somewhere up ahead. " _Jaune!?_ " The little team leader was obviously worried by the sound of gunfire, but she couldn't move into the woods to help. She was just as blind in the dark as Jaune was.

He hobbled towards sound of Ruby's voice. He tried to yell, to let everyone know where he was, but his throat was too dry. He clambered around another tree, only to realize a second too late that he had arrived at the edge of the lake, and he fell right into the water with a loud splash.

 _2 out of 10 for that dive. You need to work on your form,_ the voice taunted as he sank.

"Whose side are you on?" Jaune tried to ask, but only bubbles came out.

Being as exhausted as he was, and because he had only one functioning arm, Jaune was certain that he was about to drown in roughly four feet of water. Luckily, Ren had heard the knight fall in and had proceeded to dive in after him. Still wearing only his towel, Ren dragged his team leader back onto dry land.

"I've got Jaune!" he called out, and immediately several other figures - who turned out to be Pyrrha, Nora, and Ruby - rushed over to join them.

Ruby arrived first, yelped loudly, and covered her eyes. "Ack! Jaune, you're naked," she cried, peeking out from between her fingers.

"So I... keep... hearing," Jaune coughed, using his good hand to maintain his modesty. "Could someone get me a towel?"

"You're inured," Pyrrha said seriously, crouching to more closely examine the wound on his face. "Nora, go grab one of the medical kits."

"Got it!" Nora nodded, turned around, and hurried off.

Pyrrha looked back to Jaune. "What happened? It got too dark for us to continue looking for you. We still had Blake searching but-"

"She saved my life," the knight said hoarsely, trying to sit up. "Where... is she? She was fighting... a bunch of... Beowolves." He looked around worriedly. If she ended up injured... or worse, it would be entirely his fault. She had been forced to venture out alone in order to find him...

"Relax," Pyrrha said, placing a hand on his chest and pushing him back down. "She's fine."

"She's with Yang and Weiss right now," Ruby assured him. "They're cleaning up the last of the Beowolves, right over there." Sure enough, Jaune could make out three small silhouettes over at the tree line, dancing gracefully from place to place. He sighed in relief. Ruby leaned her head in front of him, blocking his view. "Worry about yourself right now, Jaune. Why did you run in there alone… and… really, really naked?"

"I found... the Grimm that we've been looking for," Jaune groaned weakly. He lifted his mangled wrist into view, causing everyone to wince. "We shook hands and introduced ourselves. He's actually a pretty okay guy, once you get to know him. Really... cheerful." He tried to smile bravely.

"You're certain?" Pyrrha asked.

"I mean, we only just met."

"Are you certain that it was the Grimm that we've been searching for?" she clarified sternly, though she also appeared relieved that her leader still had the energy to crack jokes. "You're certain that it was our target?"

"Positive," Jaune groaned. "I'm... sorry, guys. I couldn't kill it..." He hadn't even come close. He hadn't so much as touched it...

"Don't worry about that right now, Jaune," Pyrrha said. "We know for sure that it's nearby now. We'll find it again."

"And kill it," Ruby added helpfully.

"Now that's an idea I can get behind," Jaune admitted. "So… uh... is anyone working on that towel yet?" He looked over at Ren, who hadn't yet managed to put on his own clothes, having been too busy assisting in the search. "Ren, go get dressed. I'm fine."

"I can wait," his teammate replied simply, stifling a shiver. Ren was loyal to a fault, as always.

When Nora returned, she was carrying both the medical supplies and a thermal blanket. Pyrrha helped Jaune into an upright position, and then threw the blanket over his shoulders. The knight pulled the warm material tighter around himself, still shaking violently. Pyrrha made to open the provisions, but Jaune put a hand out to stop her. "Let's make sure everyone is safely back at camp first," he said calmly. "Then we can worry about patching up my injuries." With some difficulty, he pushed himself up and onto his feet. "Someone go get the others."

"Help carry hi-" Pyrrha began to say to Ren and Nora.

"No," Jaune interrupted her quietly. "Let me walk."

Pyrrha looked to him inquiringly. "Is this more of that _macho_ stuff?" she asked. She looked as if she was barely containing her frustration.

"Afraid so," he replied with a weak grin. "Let me hang on to a scrap of my dignity, at least. You know that Yang would never let either one of us hear the end of it if she saw you carrying me back to camp bridal style."

Ruby smiled sadly despite herself. "He's not wrong."

Pyrrha gave in with a sigh. "Alright, fine." She handed the medical kit back to Nora. "But, we need to move quickly. You're bleeding badly, Jaune."

That gentle reminder brought back all the pain that the knight had nearly forgotten about. Every individual ache and scrape was competing for his attention, and all of them were losing decisively to his broken wrist. Ignoring the pain, he nodded to his partner, made sure the blanket he wore was covering everything important, and then slowly started moving. Begrudgingly, he allowed Pyrrha to lend him a shoulder, supporting some of his weight. As they circled the lake, Ren and Nora hurried ahead, checking for threats, while Ruby hung back to help her teammates finish exterminating the remaining Grimm.

Which meant that, for the moment, Jaune was entirely alone with his partner, whom he imagined was rightfully furious at him. He had, after all, allowed the Grimm to get away - nearly killing himself in the process - and then forced everyone else, especially Blake, to risk their lives looking for him in the dark.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly.

"For what?" Pyrrha asked evenly, not looking up to meet his gaze.

"I… I promised you that I wouldn't overdo things… and… I sort of failed to fulfill that promise... spectacularly."

Pyrrha didn't respond, instead staring straight ahead as she helped carry him.

Jaune tried to find the right words, but he had never been especially eloquent. "It was stupid to run in there by myself, I know. You were probably worried… because... honestly, we both know that I can't really handle myself all that well…" he said sadly. "I'm not as talented as the rest of you… Following that Grimm felt like the right call at the time. I couldn't just do nothing and watch it escape. But, I guess I made the wrong choice... It's perfectly reasonable for you to be angry. You shouldn't have to put up with your team leader being-"

Abruptly, Pyrrha turned to him, leaned in, and kissed him, preventing him from continuing. It was a tentative touch, lasting only a second, maybe less. The knight had no time to react, or even to enjoy the sensation of her lips on his, before it was over and she had pulled away from him again.

"Jaune, stop talking."

Someone replied, "Okay." It couldn't have been him. He didn't remember any words.

"I'm not angry," Pyrrha said, finally meeting his eyes. "I was just worried. I didn't know if you were going to be alright on your own. And... I didn't think you would appreciate hearing me say so. You know, your macho stuff and all that..."

Jaune knew that he should have said or done something meaningful, but he was having trouble thinking. That Grimm hadn't blindsided him nearly as hard as his partner just had.

He couldn't help but notice that his partner had come away with a bit of his blood on her lips. That wasn't really a surprise, given the awful state he was in. He opened his mouth to tell her, but his vision swam, and he instead ended up choosing that particular moment to black out.


	8. The Sound of One Hand Clapping

Arc 1, Chapter 8

The Sound of One Hand Clapping

* * *

When Jaune came to, it was already well past morning. The sun was high in the sky, and the intensity of it finally jarred him from sleep. He brought a hand up to shield his eyes from the bright light, vaguely wondering where, when, and who he was. His thoughts were a horrible jumbled mess.

The last thing he could remember was...

The knight gasped and leapt to his feet, his panicked survival instincts screaming at him to move, even if they had yet to arrive at any suitable reason. He remembered fighting the strangest Grimm he had ever seen, and then being chased through the woods by a pack of Beowolves. As he floundered about, blinking hard, his eyes adjusting to the daylight, he slowly took note of the lack of attacking Grimm. There was no immediate threat to his safety.

He was alive and well. He was safe, back at their base camp.

Jaune exhaled a breath that he hadn't known he was holding in.

From the looks of it, someone had constructed a fire pit with several large stones, and the crackling remains of a campfire were still burning. It let off a thin, wispy trail of smoke, as the last few hopeful embers slowly died off. The warmth from that fire had probably been the only thing that kept the knight alive through the night, he realized, given how he'd been practically hypothermic. He was relieved to see that frostbite hadn't claimed any of his fingers or toes.

On the ground, a short distance from the fire, there was an open medical kit. Beside the box there was a crumpled ball of sticky red gauze, a surgical suture, some thread, and a number of metal stitches coated in dried blood. There was quite a lot of blood on the ground as well... _Was someone hurt_?

Jaune shook his aching head, trying to focus. He was the one who had been hurt, obviously. He had taken a horrible beating the previous night. It looked as though someone had been hard at work, patching up his injuries.

He brought a shaking hand up to his face to inspect the damage himself...

From the looks of the used supplies, one of his teammates had already stitched the wound shut while he slept. The stitches would then have been removed again once they'd fulfilled their purpose - keeping his skin held together while his aura mended the injury.

The knight explored with his fingertips and found a rough line running the length of his face, beginning just above his right eye and ending on his left cheek. It was a scab, or maybe a scar? That was unusual, he thought. His aura had always been relatively thorough when it came to healing cuts. Then again, he imagined that this had been a particularly nasty cut. Perhaps this injury needed more time...

A throbbing pain drew Jaune's attention to his broken wrist. He hesitantly lifted it up for a look, but was pleasantly surprised by what he found. Someone had thrown together a crude splint for him, using a few wooden sticks wrapped tight with medical bandages. If the knight was lucky, it meant that his bones would settle correctly. Not surprisingly, his wrist still ached at even the slightest motion; broken bones didn't fuse back together quite as quickly as superficial flesh wounds, even with the assistance of aura. The patches of his skin that he could see through gaps in the wrapping were an ugly, violet color. He tried to test out his fingers, but found he could only cause them to twitch slightly. So, he would be operating with only one hand for the foreseeable future...

As if he wasn't already the team JNPR's weakest link.

All of the survival backpacks belonging to the members of teams RWBY and JNPR had been stacked in a rough pyramid a few yards away, and sleeping bags were laid out in a semi-circle around the campfire. All of them looked to have been slept in.

Jaune continued looking around, trying unsuccessfully to regain his bearings. He still felt excruciatingly dull. Simple information was taking a long time to penetrate his skull. Well, longer than usual, anyway...

 _Where was everyone?_

That felt like an important question - one he probably should have considered sooner. The sleeping bags were all empty, and no one from his team was hovering around him, trying to make absolutely certain he was okay. They usually loved doing that. Was he... here alone? He turned around, glancing toward the lake, and immediately his anxiety lessened as he spotted Yang. Of course, they would never leave him here sleeping, entirely undefended. Not when Grimm could have simply wandered by and killed him. The brawler was seated on the tree trunk that Nora had set down, facing away from him and... peacefully reading a book? That wasn't like her.

"Hey, Yang," Jaune tried to shout, but he ended up coughing as he spoke. His throat felt raw.

Yang still heard him, however, and she quickly snapped her book shut and spun around to greet him. "Good morning, Jaune. How are you..." She slowed mid-sentence, and her cheerful smile faded. "...feeling?" She stared at him, eyes wide, mouth agape.

Jaune hadn't been expecting that reaction. He must have looked like an absolute mess. Maybe his injuries were more serious than he knew.

When she simply continued to gawk for a while, he hesitantly asked, "Are you... alright, Yang?"

After a moment, Yang nodded wordlessly, and then cleared her throat. "Uh… Jaune."

"Yes?" he replied.

"I'm not a doctor," she began, looking serious, "but, I do know that you lost a lot of blood yesterday..."

Jaune listened uncertainly, suddenly worrying whether he was in any state to be standing up.

"So, maybe..." she continued, breaking into a shit-eating grin, "you should put the blood that you have left to... better use."

The knight looked down stupidly. It took him a full five seconds to realize that he was still naked from the previous night - and that he was standing at full attention.

When the thought finally clicked, he yelped loudly, diving back to the ground for his discarded blanket, before wrapping it around his waist to cover himself. All the while, Yang roared with laughter, clutching her sides and gasping for air.

Jaune blushed furiously. That hadn't exactly been the most dignified way to start the day...

"Glad to see that you're up and about," Yang chuckled, wiping tears from her eyes. "Considering the fact that you almost got mauled to death last night, it seems like you've still got plenty of life left in you, huh?"

"Where are my clothes?" Jaune asked, trying not to sound as humiliated as he felt.

"Right over there," Yang said, gesturing at their lookout tree. Sure enough, the knight's clothes were hanging from the lowest branch. "But, I think you looked like you were comfortable enough without them," she purred, before breaking into another fit of giggling.

Ignoring the girl's remarks, Jaune walked over and grabbed his things. He slipped around to the far side of the tree for a bit of privacy, grumbling under his breath as he changed. It hurt maneuvering his injured wrist through the sleeve of his jacket, but otherwise he managed to get his gear on without any issues. Thankfully, he wasn't completely crippled yet.

He also found Crocea Mors leaned against the tree trunk, helpfully left there by one of his teammates. He picked it up, relishing the weight in his hands for a moment, before sheathing the sword and securing it to his belt. There was absolutely no chance that he was letting go if his weapon again, for any reason.

He pictured himself as he'd been, kneeling helpless before that bizarre Grimm, and shivered. "That damn _smile_ ," he muttered to himself.

When Jaune eventually wandered back over to the camp, he found Yang still in the same place she'd been. She was laid out flat on her back, her book held up over her face. The knight noticed this time that it was the same book Blake had been holding yesterday; boring black cover, title written in fancy red script, and no pictures. It probably wasn't his thing.

Yang licked a finger, carefully turned a page, read for a few moments, and then sighed to herself. "Oh, Blake... this isn't even well written, and that's coming from _me_." Then she spotted Jaune walking over. "Hey, Jaune. Do you like ninjas? You should take a look at this..."

He turned down the offer. More important things were on his mind. "Where's everyone else?" he asked.

"Making sure that your valiant efforts didn't go to waste," Yang replied, returning to her reading.

"And... what does that mean?"

"They're scouting the forest on the other side of the lake," she clarified, "trying to find your Grimm friend again."

"Ah," Jaune said bitterly. What else _could_ he say? If he hadn't run off alone yesterday, and had instead informed the others about what he'd seen, the results would still have been exactly the same - a morning search party. He had risked his life, badly injuring himself in the process, and for no reward...

"So... are you feeling better?" Yang asked him.

 _Not really_. "Yeah," Jaune replied. "I mean, I think so. Aside from my wrist." He tested it again and winced.

"Well, at least you still have one good hand to hold that weapon of yours." Yang flipped another page. "And also, Crocea Mors," she added with a cheeky grin.

"Why aren't you out searching too?" Jaune asked, trying to change the subject. Was there _anyone_ who hadn't see him naked since they'd arrived out here? He thought for a moment, and realized that the only person from teams RWBY and JNPR who hadn't was Weiss. What an eventful first day it had been...

"We played rock, paper, scissor to decide who would stay behind and watch you while you slept," Yang explained.

"And you won?"

"Yeaah," she answered, drawing out the word sarcastically. "You can put it that way, if you'd like..." The brawler perked up a bit, her eyes still locked on the book, as she quickly skipped a few pages ahead. "Yes, finally," she murmured at the paper. "Give it to her... _Just_ like that. She _wants_ it."

Jaune sighed and turned around, pulling out his scroll as he walked away.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" Yang called out after him. "I'm not supposed to let you out of my sight."

"I'm not going far," he said simply, turning to find that the blonde girl had already skipped over to him. "Just calling the rest of my team to find out where they are. I also need to contact team CRDL, and let them know that our target is in the area... unless someone else has already done that?"

"Ah." Yang rubbed at the back of her neck, looking guilty. "Well, before everyone left, Ruby _may_ have told me to give them a call, but I must have just... forgotten, in all of the... um... excitement." She waved Blake's book back and forth in front of him, as an example of said excitement.

"I understand. You've been busy," Jaune chuckled, tapping at the buttons on his scroll. It was hard to blame the brawler for not wanting to talk to Cardin. He certainly didn't want to. "But we need to let them know the Grimm is somewhere near us," he sighed. "We've got a better chance of finding it with everyone searching together."

Yang grunted noncommittally.

The knight placed the call and Cardin picked up on the second ring. The bully's face appeared on the scroll's display, looking no worse for wear than he had when the two groups separated a day ago. Jaune could see dense foliage in the background of the image, which meant that Cardin was busy scouring the forest as well. If the scowl on his face was any indication, the search wasn't going well.

Yang leaned over Jaune's shoulder and into the frame. "Heyya, Cardin," she called out in a singsong voice. "Still alive, I see."

"What is it?" Cardin asked, wasting no time on pleasantries.

"We found the Grimm we've been looking for," Jaune explained.

The bully gave a curt nod. "And?"

Jaune blinked a few times. "And...?" he repeated, confused.

"And, _did you get the pictures and kill it_?" Cardin clarified, obviously irritated.

"Oh," Jaune said, frowning. "No. We found it, but it... um... got away." There was really no need to go into any specifics.

"Figures," Cardin said, shaking his head. "Send us your coordinates. We'll be sure to come do the job the right way." And with that, the bully ended the call abruptly, leaving Jaune staring at a blank screen in disbelief.

"I think that went well," Yang offered.

Before the knight could conjure up a reply, his scroll, still in his hand, began buzzing loudly. He looked back down at it in surprise. According to the display, Ruby was calling him now. He smiled and tapped 'accept.' This would definitely be a more pleasant conversation than the last one. "Hey, Ruby," he said, as she appeared on the screen.

The other team leader immediately matched his smile. "Glad to see you're awake. You aren't hurt?" Her eyes traced the scar running across his face.

"I could be worse." He could be dead.

"That's good," Ruby said, taking him at his word. Then her expression grew more serious. "We found it, Jaune."

He knew that she could only be talking about one thing. The Grimm. "Really?" he asked, standing straighter. His heart skipped a beat, though he wasn't sure if that was because he was eager or terrified. "Where? Where are you guys? Did you...?"

"We haven't tried to fight it," Ruby explained quickly. "When I say found, I mean we spotted it. It might take some time to catch up, though. We're all waiting on you two, before we start wandering off too far. I'm sending you our coordinates. Hurry up!"

"How far are we moving?" Jaune asked. "What about our bags?"

"We might have another long hike ahead of us," Ruby replied, "So we'll definitely need the backpacks. You two are gonna have to bring them all with you. Sorry." She tried to tilt her screen and look over his shoulder. "Sorry, Yang!" she yelled out. Then she looked back to Jaune. "And is team CRDL on the way?"

"Yeah," Jaune replied. "But, Cardin said not to bother waiting up for them." Behind him, Yang snickered.

"Alright. Get here as fast as you can. Bye Jaune! No wait... I mean..." Ruby looked as though she was very thinking hard. "Uh... roger. Copy. Loud and clear. Over and out." Then she hung up.

Yang buried her face in her palm. "Weiss made an offhand comment about Ruby's leadership abilities yesterday, and she _kind of_ took it to heart," she explained, with a sigh. "Now she's trying to be more mature... or professional, or... something. She's been slapping military lingo into her sentences all morning. Somehow that's actually making her seem less reliable than usual..."

Jaune chuckled. That sounded adorable. At least he wasn't the only one struggling with the pressures of leading a team.

Then the duo began to clean up their camp as quickly as humanly possible. They doused the remains of the fire, gathered and squared away their supplies, and snatched up all eight backpacks. Much to his chagrin, Jaune only managed to carry three of the heavy bags, given the fact that they were overflowing with survival gear and he couldn't use his left arm. Yang easily shouldered the other five, curling them like a circus strong man as they hiked. Every once in a while she would glance over at him, grinning, making sure he was paying attention to her boisterous display of strength.

It didn't even look as though she was exerting much effort. _Damn she has strong arms_ , he marveled. Then she hoisted the bags up above her head in a rough shoulder press, causing her breasts to stick out dramatically. S _he must have a strong back too..._

At this point, teams RWBY, JNPR, and CRDL had only been in the wilderness for a single day, but already Jaune never wanted to see another shrub in his life. The overgrown weeds were doing their best, as always, to snatch and strangle the life out of his legs.

Whereas yesterday the forest had seemed like an almost pleasant place, now the knight found it intimidating. His harrowing experience the previous night had really rattled him, to put it lightly. As they walked, he spun nervously in the direction of every little sound, half expecting the creatures of Grimm to come bounding out of the bushes at him. At one point, a bird flew by and he cried out, dropped the bags, and yanked Crocea Mors out of its sheath.

Yang had thought that absolutely hilarious. Jaune didn't appreciate the laughter, but he didn't complain either. He was secretly just thrilled that he had her around to protect him if something attacked them - and also secretly mortified that he was thrilled for such a reason...

As they passed near village 42A-B, for what might be the last time, Jaune gave it one final, careful look. From a distance, the houses seemed impossibly small, and the town's defensive wall looked like a strong wind could knock it down. But, still, people had once worked here, called that place home.

Not anymore.

Now they were dead.

Jaune felt as though he had known that from the beginning... But it didn't make finally admitting it feel any less awful.

Intrinsically, he understood that he couldn't possibly have saved the villagers. RWBY and JNPR had arrived after _whatever_ happened here was already over. It occurred to him that he should have asked Cardin about the status of the other village, but he suspected he already knew the answer...

Jaune knew they couldn't bring back the dead. They could, however, slay the monsters responsible.

One monster in particular came to mind. But when he pictured it in his head - he didn't feel angry, as he should have. Instead, he felt terrified and disgusted... and ashamed with himself. He couldn't even properly fantasize about killing the Grimm, because he was too busy imagining that the creature was looming right behind him, smiling that sickening smile, licking its lips... He found himself shivering again.

He nervously turned to look over his shoulder, but there was nothing there.

"Hey, quit spacing out!" Yang shouted suddenly, throwing out her arm to keep him from walking right into a tree.

Jaune jumped violently, when she called out. It took him a second to recover, while his heartbeat slowed to a less frantic pace. "Right. Sorry." He was red-faced, embarrassed by his sudden cowardice.

Yang gave him a strange look, and then shook her head, exasperated. "What's going on with you, Jaune?"

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"You are-" The brawler jerked forward suddenly, and he flinched away, nearly toppling over backwards, "-jumping at your own shadow."

"It's nothing," Jaune lied.

"We both know it's not nothing," Yang replied, frowning. After a moment, though, she seemed to perk up slightly. "You know what? I think you have some... stuff you need to work through," she said, glancing at something behind him, "and do you know what medicine Doctor Xiao Long proscribes?"

He spun in place, following her gaze - and his eyes settled on a lone Beowolf. It stood quite a distance away, pawing at the dirt absentmindedly, completely oblivious to the presence of the huntsman and huntress. The creature was most likely a straggler from the pack that had appeared the previous night.

Jaune looked at it uncertainly. "Uh...Yang," he said eventually. "Didn't you say that you _weren't_ a doctor just a minute ago?"

"Just go kill it, Jaune."

"I can't," he said, knowing full well that he meant it. Just the day before, he'd been able to dispatch Beowolves with ease, but now he was shaking in his boots just looking at one. What had happened to him? Well, that he actually knew. He had finally been given a demonstration of how weak he truly was... "I'm injured," he declared lamely.

 _Have you finally figured out that you aren't cut out for this?_ a familiar voice asked.

"Yeah, you're injured. So?" Yang demanded, interrupting his thoughts. She yanked him forward by the collar. "I watched you kill two Beowolves yesterday. That's twice as many as one, and now you have half as many arms. It'll be a fair fight."

"I don't-"

"Listen!" She cried angrily. "I don't know what happened last night, but you're clearly messed up. And, you know what? You can't afford to be." She pulled him in so close that their noses were touching. "Your teammates are going to need their leader. Are you going to _act_ like one? I know you can. I've seen it. And I preferred it."

Jaune tried to glance down in shame - but he had a view right down the front of Yang's shirt. So, he hurriedly looked back up.

"Okay... Right," he finally agreed, gathering his shaky determination. He... had made one giant mistake, but his friends were still relying on him to help complete the mission. Lives were at stake this time around, and not just his own. He wasn't about to let someone get hurt because he'd developed a sudden case of nerves.

The knight drew out Crocea Mors. As Yang looked on, he took a deep breath and whistled loudly. The Grimm, with its exceptional hearing, promptly noticed the shrill sound and snapped its head in their direction. Immediately it recognized the pair as food. The creature charged, howling, closing the distance in a matter of seconds. Luckily, that only meant that Jaune had little time to panic.

Again he was struck by how predictably the Beowolf moved. He dodged around the side of its furry body, slicing a deep cut down the length of the its torso as it flew by him. The creature landed on its back, rolled over, and then rushed in for another attempt. Lifeblood was leaking heavily from its newly acquired wound, but it seemed not to notice. This time the Grimm kept low to the ground, aiming its claws at Jaune's legs, but he quickly leapt backward out of its reach - and then forward again after the blow had fallen short. With another swing, the knight opened the Beowolf's throat.

It collapsed at his feet, spewing ichor.

Jaune took a cautious step away and watched the monster twitch pathetically as it bled out. So, he wasn't going to freeze up in the middle of a fight, at least. The realization came as a tremendous relief.

"Feeling better?" Yang asked, stepping up to him and placing a hand on his shoulder. She looked down at the dying Beowolf with mild interest.

"A lot, actually," Jaune admitted. "I really needed that, Yang... er... I mean, Doctor Xiao Long."

"Yay!" She cocked her shotgun gauntlets, which she lovingly referred to as Ember Celica. "That was actually pretty well done, Jaune. Just like yesterday. Very _sexy_." Then she turned and blasted the Grimm in the head at point blank range. Its skull exploded violently, splattering them both with gore.

"Uh... thanks," he said, wiping the disgusting mess from his face, even though it would eventually disappear on its own. "Really, though. _Thank you_ , Yang."

The brawler grinned and waved a dismissive hand. "Thanks aren't necessary, Jaune. If you really want to thank someone, then save it for Pyrrha when you see her. She spent the entire night jig-saw puzzling you back together, you know. And, speaking of the others, we should probably start moving again."

Jaune chuckled. "Of course. Don't worry I'll... uh... thank..." He trailed off, as the memories of the previous night came back to him. "Oh."

 _Pyrrha_.

"Uh... you alright?" Yang asked, leaning in close to scrutinize him - but Jaune barely heard her.

Pyrrha had _kissed_ him last night.

Before, she had always been his partner, his friend, and sometimes his teacher... Had that changed now?

Jaune had never considered Pyrrha as a... _romantic interest_ before. He shuddered at the thought. Obviously, he recognized that she was beautiful and kind and a shining example of a huntress, but she was also hilariously out of his league. He had never put much thought into... that. Or, at least, he'd tried not to.

What was he supposed to say when he saw her again... in only a few minutes?

He had never exactly been known for making rational decisions under pressure. Things were probably about to get a little bit tense _._ That was the last thing he needed at the moment - he looked over at the disintegrating Grimm corpse. More _tension_. Maybe he could just completely ignore the issue for now?

How could _that_ possibly go wrong?

"Jaune, are you okay? Hello?" Yang asked curiously, waving a hand in front of his face.


	9. Frostbite and Inclement Weather

Arc 1, Chapter 9

Frostbite and Inclement Weather

* * *

It had begun to snow by the time Jaune and Yang met up with the rest of the group.

A gentle flurry was swirling down around them, accumulating in the hair and on the shoulders of the young students. It was markedly colder than it had been the previous day, though the temperature was still well above the brutal chill of the previous night. All of the members of teams RWBY and JNPR had zipped up their jackets, but none had yet deemed it necessary to adorn their caps and gloves. The falling snowflakes weren't quite sticking to the still warm ground.

The mountain range Jaune had seen from the airship earlier towered behind the group, an enormous, ice-tipped saw, slicing through the pale gray clouds. The largest of the mountains thoroughly dwarfed the others, cloaking them in its shadow, and the knight had to look nearly straight up to follow the incline to its peak. It made him feel uncomfortable, as though he needed to drop and grab fistfuls of grass to anchor himself, to keep from falling up.

As Jaune approached the others, he noted that they had gathered at the base of a mild dirt slope. It seemed to snake up along the closest, most manageable mountain - a hill in comparison to those around it. And up that hill, he assumed, was where the Grimm had gone... And where they were going.

"Please tell me we aren't going rock climbing..." Yang sighed, looking at the ascending path, as she approached the rest of her team.

"I don't suppose there's an escalator?" Jaune mused sarcastically, keeping pace a few steps behind her.

Ruby stood waiting to greet them with a smile. "I'm afraid so, and I'm afraid not."

Jaune looked around at the others, receiving a few cheerful smiles and a few determined nods for his trouble. Everyone seemed excited rather than worried. Well, probably everyone... He had been too nervous to meet Pyrrha's gaze directly. He wasn't yet sure what expression he was supposed to wear when he did so, or what he was supposed to say. It was infinitely easier to simply slip back into the role of soldier, and worry about his personal problems at a later date...

He also noticed that Blake was conspicuously absent. She could be difficult to spot when she was so inclined, so he scanned the surrounding area a bit more carefully. But she truly was nowhere to be found.

"Blake is scouting ahead," Ren spoke, answering his leader's question before he could ask it.

"She'll back in a minute," Ruby confirmed, before turning to Yang. "I'll fill the two of you in while we wait..."

As she began to talk, the others fidgeted, shifting their balance from foot to foot, eager to begin moving. Both teams - minus Jaune and Yang - had been scouring the woods since morning for the second day in a row now. And, much like yesterday, they hadn't found much of anything - until a short while ago, that was.

At the tail end of the search, Weiss had spotted what she described as "an unusual Grimm," matching the description of their target. It had been traveling up the mountain, along the very path that they were now huddled at the foot of. At the time, the heiress had kept far enough away to remain unnoticed, and she had chosen not to engage the creature. With the previous night's disaster still fresh in everyone's minds, the group had mutually decided that it would be best to assemble all of their firepower before they picked any fights.

It was an extremely cautious approach, not typical of team RWBY, but Jaune could appreciate it. Now that they knew where the creature was, and where it appeared to be going, they could follow it as a group, watching out for one another. There wouldn't be any more... accidents.

"Everyone grab your bags," Jaune ordered his team, dropping all but his own pack to the ground. He turned to Ruby. "Shouldn't Blake be back by now?

"I _am_ ," Blake herself answered, slipping in beside her teammates. "Hello, Jaune. You look a great deal better than you did last night."

Every member of the group performed a quick double-take when they realized who had spoken. The Faunus girl had been moving so quietly that no one had even noticed her return. Weiss shot the girl a curious look and asked, "Why do you always feel the need to do that?" Despite only having been separated for a few hours, Yang pulled her partner into a bone-breaking hug, which Blake struggled against for only a moment, before resignedly surrendering to it.

"How did recon go?" Ruby asked. "Was there any... uh... confirmation of our target's whereabouts?"

"Yes, _captain_ ," Blake replied, playing along.

Ruby didn't seem to notice that she was being humored. "How many klicks?"

"We can catch up if we move soon." Blake pointed up the slope. "There's more snow on the ground further up the path. Our Grimm is leaving a nice, long line of footprints behind it. I stuck to the trail for quite a ways, and it didn't look as though the Grimm had ventured off the path yet. It should be easy to follow."

"Excellent work," Ruby lauded. Then she gestured for everyone to follow her, and began excitedly leading the way up the mountain path. "Let's move hawk is coming out soon."

"The _what_ is... what?" Weiss said blankly.

"It means the weather is going to get colder," Blake clarified with a small grin, starting after her leader.

Weiss quickly made to follow. "Where is Ruby even learning this jargon?" she inquired. Yang shrugged in response.

Jaune smiled to himself as he watched the exchange. He was tremendously pleased to be back where he belonged, alongside his friends and teammates. It was almost impossible not to feel confident with this many other skilled hunters around him.

"You heard her," Jaune said to his own teammates. "We have a Grimm to find." _Again_ , he added mentally.

Nora bounced up and down on her feet. "Yes, sir!" she cried, saluting merrily.

As they began their march, Jaune made the conscious decision to to keep Ren and Nora standing between Pyrrha and himself. He realized that this was... well, a particularly childish thing to do, but he could only really focus on one problem at a time, and he already knew which of the two current ones was a _less_ intimidating prospect. The knight unsheathed Crocea Mors and held it at the ready. He would focus on killing monsters first, and deal with the - far more terrifying - romance stuff afterwards. "Keep your eyes open," he ordered.

The two teams moved together as one - save for Blake, who swiftly moved to her usual position ahead of everyone else, looking and listening with her enhanced senses for threats that others might miss. She moved with fluid grace that Jaune might have called "feline" had he been in a joking mood.

Ruby hiked along, starry eyed with anticipation, as if daring trouble to leap out of every bush they passed. They were actively heading toward the conclusion of their mission - which would almost certainly entail armed combat - and the tiny huntress was positively beaming. Sometimes her proclivity for violence could be… really disturbing.

Weiss appeared as composed as ever. Her habitual poise was once again on prominent display, despite the fact that they were so far from civilization, so far from anyone who might judge and score her performance. The heiress possessed an astonishing degree of athleticism for someone who appeared so... delicate. In silent awe, Jaune watched her walk for a few moments - perhaps longer than was wholly appropriate - before looking away.

Standing beside Weiss, Yang was literally steaming. Every snowflake that landed on her exposed skin immediately exploded into vapor with a hiss. The snow hardly even seemed to faze her. Jaune found himself wondering how cold it would have to be before she was actually bothered by her attire - or lack thereof. He considered suggesting to her that she put on a jacket and preserve her aura, but he thought better of it. _He_ wasn't exactly qualified to be giving Yang Xiao Long advice. Besides, the mission would hopefully be over very soon...

Ren was keeping watch for two; Nora had gotten distracted while trying to catch falling snowflakes on her tongue. Jaune decided to risk a glance past the two, at his partner. Pyrrha had her weapon at the ready and her head on a swivel. From what he could tell, the events of the previous night didn't appear to be distracting her...

Good, he thought. They could have _that_ discussion when they got back to Beacon, as long as they both remained focused right now.

The journey proved to be far from treacherous. The greatest risk they faced was slipping in the snow, and Jaune was treading carefully to avoid doing just that. The incline was fairly steep at times, but never so steep as to require climbing gear. The snow and wind slowed their ascent somewhat, but they were still following a dirt trail for the most part, which meant there was no gravel or loose rocks to really jeopardize their footing. It wasn't a pleasant walk, and it became steadily less pleasant the higher up they got, but it wasn't unbearable by any means.

A river ran adjacent to the path, making it all but impossible for the group to lose their way, even as the snow grew deeper. Jaune took solace in the fact that he couldn't _possibly_ get lost this time. If he stayed near the water and followed it downstream, it would lead him right back to where they started.

The easily identifiable, distinctly non-human footprints guided the students up and around the margin of the mountain, into ever-snowier heights. Much like the previous day, there were absolutely no other hints of the creatures of Grimm. Despite this, the group remained more attentive this time. They had learned the hard way that there _were_ in fact Grimm in the area, even if the monsters weren't always readily visible.

The longer the group climbed, the more stoic they seemed to become. Eventually no one spoke at all. It was an odd sight, Jaune thought, considering how talkative some of his friends usually were. They were all anticipating... _something_ , he imagined. Maybe some sort of climactic final battle.

But at the same time, the knight doubted any of his friends were really as worried about the Grimm that they were tracking as he was. The only thing his team knew about the creature was that it had bested him; but word search puzzles meant for children occasionally bested him, so that didn't tell them much. He was the only one who had experienced first-hand how quick and powerful the Grimm had seemed. How disturbing it felt to even be standing near it...

Jaune was uneasy. This entire situation was somehow... off... in a way he couldn't quite wrap his head around.

The Grimm had always followed a predictable path on Ozpin's maps. It had always moved towards the next populated village. The knight would know; he'd spent hours memorizing the maps in preparation for this mission. But, the nearest human settlement to 42A-A and 42A-B was south.

The Grimm was moving north instead. Not to mention, it was traveling up the side of a mountain for no discernible reason. _But_ _why_?

Jaune had absolutely no idea, and that was bothering him.

Ultimately, he decided that it wouldn't help him to stress over the lingering questions he had. Worrying would do nothing to change the situation, because they still needed to track the Grimm down, wherever it happened to go. Certainly, nothing good had come of following the creature the first time - and Jaune was not pleased to be doing it again - but they had no other options. This was _their_ mission and they would be expected to see it through.

Besides, the knight thought, how could a Grimm of such a small size possibly fight the members of RWBY and JNPR all at once...?

* * *

As they continued their climb, the trees and bushes thinned out around them, eventually disappearing entirely in favor of solid stone and grit. Nearly three hours had passed since the students had begun hiking, and the snow was now piling up to an uncomfortable height. There were great chunks of ice lazily drifting down the river that ran alongside them, and each and every student had finally adopted their gloves, hats, scarves, and hand warmers.

After what felt like an eternity of anxiety and anticipation, Blake froze in place, signaling for the group to stop.

Everyone obeyed without question, and those not already holding their weapons quickly produced them. Jaune's heart beat uncomfortably against his ribs.

Blake gestured for the everyone to come to her, never breaking her gaze from whatever it was she'd seen in the distance. When everyone had moved over to her position, she pointed uphill - where the path curved sharply to one side and up into a long, gradual slope.

Jaune squinted hard, but at first he saw nothing unusual. A glance back at his team proved that they were having similar troubles.

As they edged closer, however, he was eventually able to make out what might have been a figure at the very top of the hill, though the silhouette was hardly more than a black speck against the white backdrop. The footprints they were following appeared to stretch right up towards it.

It wasn't moving.

Ruby pressed a button on Cresent Rose, and with a series of metallic clicks and pneumatic hisses, the weapon transformed into its rifle mode. She shouldered it, pointed it at the figure, and peered down the sight. "It's facing away from us," she said, after a moment.

Blake nodded. "Move quietly. We don't want it to hear us coming."

And so, they continued uphill toward the creature with excruciating slowness, crouched low, weapons raised. Jaune couldn't recall ever being more careful in his entire life. He was prone to clumsiness at the best of times, and this really seemed like the type of opportunity he would normally ruin by slipping and falling in the snow. When they were finally close enough for most of the huntsmen and huntresses to have an accurate shot at the creature, they stopped again.

The Grimm still hadn't so much as twitched.

Nora held her hammer up, tangible hunger in her eyes.

Jaune grabbed her arm preventatively. "Don't run in," he whispered. "I... I don't like this. Why isn't it doing anything?"

"So? What do you want us to do?" Yang asked, annoyed. "Just stand here?"

"No, I just..." He trailed off, not sure how to continue. He wasn't even sure what he wanted to do.

While they debated, Weiss pulled out her scroll, zoomed in, trained it on the creature, and snapped several photographs. She looked them over curiously. "It doesn't look _too_ dangerous," she said. "But, whatever we're going to do, we should do it fast."

"Right," Ruby agreed. She lifted Cresent Rose and took aim. "I'll take out its legs. As soon as I fire, the rest of you start moving in."

"Any arguments?" Weiss asked the group, though she spoke mostly to Jaune.

He shook his head, knowing even as he did so that he was making a mistake. His instincts were screaming at him that something was wrong. Why had the Grimm deviated from its usual pattern of moving towards villages? Why had it come all the way up here, only to stand out in the open?

Ruby took aim. "Ready?" Everyone nodded, lowering into fighting stances.

This whole journey had seemed so... arbitrary. Actually, it felt almost exactly like when the Grimm had led him in circles in the forest... before it ambushed him and beat him senseless. At the time, he'd thought that _he'd_ been the one chasing _it_... _Ah._ Something clicked in his brain.

Ruby's finger tensed on the trigger. "And..."

The Grimm _knew_ that they were following it, Jaune realized suddenly. But, that begged the question, why did it bring them here...?

 _The same reason as last time,_ the voice in his head whispered.

"Oh," Jaune said aloud, realizing an instant too late what was about to happen.

The mounds of snow to either side of them exploded.

Previously concealed Beowolves came bounding out, slamming into and rolling over the group of huntsmen and huntresses in a wave of bodies. Jaune heard Ruby's sniper go off, but couldn't see whether the shot hit its mark. Silence and stillness instantly made way for deafening roars and panicked shouts. The entire group scattered chaotically, everyone attempting to fight while half blinded by the snow and ice that had been flung into their faces.

For a moment, Jaune couldn't make out much of anything, only blurs of motion, most of which were black and snarling in a rather unfriendly manner.

He barely managed to jam his sword crosswise into the mouth of a Beowolf as it attempted to tear out his throat. He strained to hold the creature at bay, while simultaneously glancing around to see if any more of them were charging at him. He wasn't quite sure what he would do if they were, considering he had only one functioning arm, but he still thought he would like to know...

And it was a good thing he'd decided to check. A second Beowolf had indeed tried to take advantage of the opening, snapping at Jaune's calf from behind. The knight managed to kick his leg up and out of the reach of the creature's fangs - but in doing so he ruined the integrity of his stance, which dropped him flat on his back... with the first Beowolf still writhing on top of him. It howled, spattering his face with hot breath and spittle, but it couldn't quite maneuver its jaw around Crocea Mors.

Jaune concentrated - as much as able, given the circumstances - on gathering his aura in his right arm. And it obeyed.

Then, with one great push, he hacked his sword clean through the Beowolf's mouth, teeth and all, cleaving its head in half horizontally. The knight rolled the corpse off of him and climbed to his feet, only to immediately have the second Beowolf hurl itself through the air at him. He gracefully ducked the blow and lobbed the creature in half at the waist as it sailed by. Taking no time to celebrate his bizarrely skillful performance, Jaune looked to see if any of his teammates were in trouble...

But that didn't look to be the case. Even at extremely close range, where Beowolves posed the greatest threat, these Grimm were still simple cannon fodder before his exceptional teammates. There were thirty or so of the creatures trading blows with RWBY and JNPR - and an additional thirty or so evaporating Grimm corpses already littering the ground. It wasn't a fight; it was a massacre.

Ruby was dancing about more quickly than Jaune's eyes could possibly follow, a flash of rose petals, navigating the battlefield in great leaps as she separated the Grimm from their limbs with alarming efficiency. Blake was using her semblance to chorale the pursuing monsters toward Yang and Weiss, who stood almost back to back, felling the monsters with powerful hammering blows and precise strikes to vitals, respectively.

In a similar fashion Ren was focusing a constant stream of gunfire on any Grimm that moved too close to his partner, while Nora clocked the Beowolves that got through with her usual bubbly brutality. Each Beowolf that went down under her hammer seemed to make her only more excited to get to the next.

Of all his friends, Jaune would have moved to help Pyrrha first if given the chance. She had been separated from the others and was currently surrounded by roughly ten of the monsters. However, it hardly looked as though she needed his help. She maneuvered around her mindless opponents with an otherworldly level of grace, dodging haphazardly delivered swipes and replying to each with a decidedly fatal strike of her own.

She had downed four of the Grimm before Jaune had so much as taken a few steps in her direction.

Realizing, not for the first time in his life, that he wasn't really needed, Jaune instead steered his attention back toward their initial target. This second surprise attack, eerily identical to the first, all but confirmed that this new Grimm could... lead or control Beowolves in some way... Unfortunately, the humanoid Grimm was nowhere to be seen. It had vanished from where it had been standing.

It had gotten away from them _again_.

In its place, however, there were now nearly fifty additional Beowolves pouring over the crest of the hill and down towards teams RWBY and JNPR. Jaune looked to his teammates, but no one else seemed to have noticed the creatures approaching. They were too busy dispatching the remnants of the first wave.

He swore. _Well, at least things can't get any worse._

Then a shadow fell over the battlefield, shrouding the entire mountainside in semi-darkness.

He swore again.

Dreading what he knew he was going to see, he glanced up at the sky, only to find what might have been the single largest Nevermore he had ever laid eyes on. The creature was hovering - enormous wings flapping - at the peak of the mountain... eclipsing the sun.

It let out an ear-splitting cry that rattled the ground beneath the huntsmen and huntresses.

Nevermore were some of the most feared beasts known to mankind, and for good reason. Not only could they fly, enabling them to quickly cover vast distances and ignore defensive perimeters, but they were one of the few species of Grimm that could attack without needing to be anywhere near to their prey. It could launch its pitch-black, razor sharp feathers as projectiles, essentially spraying the entire battlefield with a volley of giant spears.

Over time, Nevermore could often grow large enough to snatch and carry off adult humans. This one looked as though it could haul away a full school bus...

Jaune's first thought was, _How do I stab that? It's too high up._ He glanced stupidly down at the sword in his hand. When this was over, he decided with a small nod, he might have to look into acquiring a sword that also turned into a gun.

The creature, entirely indifferent to the knight's difficulties, drew back both of its wings...

"Find cover!" Jaune shouted in panic, already turning to run.

"The situation is _FUBAR_!" he heard Ruby yell from somewhere nearby. At least she still seemed like she was still having fun.

The Nevermore screeched again, throwing its wings forward and discharging a whistling salvo of dozens of black feathers.

And suddenly, everyone around Jaune was moving, making an attempt for any kind of cover - of which the mountainside had practically none. The knight dropped Crocea Mors into the snow so that he could draw his shield with his only good arm. He raised the cold metal up to defend himself, and carefully watched the projectiles as they fell, like buckshot on an enormous, terrifying scale...

However, he quickly realized that something was wrong.

The feathers didn't look as though they were about to pepper the entire area, as he had been expecting. Instead, they had all been focused into one narrow, controlled burst. Jaune had never seen such a precise shot from one of the Nevermore, but then again, this Grimm was colossal, meaning it was most likely ancient... and highly intelligent. As far as weapons went, Nevermore feathers weren't terribly accurate, but the strategy this Nevermore was currently employing meant that it was almost certainly going to hit the lone individual it had aimed for...

Pyrrha.

His partner was currently too concerned with the last few Beowolf throwing themselves onto her spear to take notice of the threat above. The snow at her feet was dotted with numerous, very quickly growing shadows. The arrows would be raining down all around her in mere moments...

Several people shouted at once. Jaune was relatively sure that he was one of them.

He was already standing nearest to Pyrrha - but even then, he leapt more quickly than he had ever thought himself capable. He reached his partner in mere seconds, throwing himself between her and the approaching projectiles, while forcing them both down into a crouch. Clearly startled, Pyrrha turned to determine who had pushed her to the ground, but she didn't turn quickly enough to ready her shield.

Jaune kept his own raised, and prayed it would prevent the feathers from skewering them. The instant before the black cloud dropped onto them, he closed his eyes.

There was a series of very loud thuds, as the projectiles pierced the ground all around the duo. For a moment, the knight even allowed himself the hope that the feathers might all somehow miss them... But then there was a very loud metallic _twang,_ accompanied by a sharp impact that threatened to snap his shield arm in two. His feet slid in the snow, but he somehow kept his balance.

The next hit threw him over backwards on top of Pyrrha. Even as he fell - and it felt as though his shoulder dislocated - he kept his shield up.

Jaune felt rather than heard several more nearby impacts, but in a stroke of luck, nothing else landed directly on his guard.

Then there was a shredding sound... and sudden, excruciating pain in his foot. The knight realized that his lower legs were entirely exposed now that he was lying flat on his back, but he couldn't do much about that. He wondered in panic whether he'd just lost some of his toes...

Suddenly, much to the knight's relief, the blows simply... stopped connecting. Strangely, however, he could still hear the rapid-fire crash of the feathers thumping against the earth, but it was... oddly muffled, as though someone had thrown a blanket over his head. Hesitantly, Jaune opened his eyes, only to find one of Weiss's glyphs - the likeness of a giant snowflake - floating in the air in front of him and his partner. The Schnee heiress's semblance took the last few hits, as the arrows bounced off and fell harmlessly to the ground.

All around Jaune and Pyrrha, feathers the size of small trees stood upright, driven deep into the snow.

Weiss stood behind them, Myrtenaster pointed directly ahead to conjure her improvise shield, her face set in a mask of calm determination. Then she took a slow, deep breath and relaxed her concentration. The glyph disappeared with a sound like breaking glass.

"Thanks, Weiss," Jaune tried to say, but all that came out of his mouth was an anguished groan.

He checked his foot. One of the Nevermore feathers had landed between his feet, punching a large hole into the ground and tearing into the side of his boot. It had taken off some of his skin - but it was only a glancing blow. He exhaled in relief... and then inhaled in pain. It still hurt a lot.

Despite the pain, he grit his teeth and climbed back to his feet anyway, turning to make certain Pyrrha was alright.

She didn't appear any worse for wear - though she did look stunned and worried and relieved all at once. "Jaune," she said breathlessly, blinking at him, "I don't know what to say. Thank you... I... Your foot..." She looked down at the bloodstained snow and frowned deeply.

Jaune began to reply, but he was quickly distracted by the sound of someone shouting. Whoever it was, they were calling... his name? And what was that rumbling sound...?

At that very moment, while Jaune and Pyrrha were still looking at one another, and Weiss was eyeing the circling Nevermore, a Beowolf threw itself into Jaune. _Hard_. The creature hit him, painfully bashing the knight's own shield against the bridge of his nose.

The Beowolf reinforcements had reached them while they'd been distracted by the threat above.

The surprise blow threw the knight into Pyrrha and Weiss, knocking all three of them off balance. They tumbled off the side of the path, rolled down a short bluff, and splashed into the freezing water of the river; the very same river that they had been carefully following all day.

One of the three of them let out a high-pitched shriek. It could have been anyone, really.

Jaune hadn't known that the cold could be so painful, that it could burn. It took him nearly ten seconds to reign his frozen body back under his control, and then another ten to realize he was flailing uselessly, rather than actually swimming. His backpack was weighing him down, slapping him repeatedly against the bottom of the stream. Deciding it would be better to lose his supplies than to drown, he ditched his bag and let it sink.

As the flow of water urged him downstream, Jaune managed to lift his head above the surface for just a moment, gulping down a satisfying breath.

He looked back to his friends in time to see the remaining five members of teams RWBY and JNPR hurriedly retreating in a hail of bullets. They were quickly being overwhelmed by the sheer number of Beowolves even as they actively tried to avoid another storm of feathers from the Nevermore.

Desperate to return to the action and help his team, Jaune tried to swim toward the river bank. He hadn't made much in the way of progress, when the stream split, the current carrying him away from the battle - and then it dropped him unceremoniously down a thirty foot waterfall.

A few moments later, Pyrrha and Weiss followed.


	10. Perception, Misconception

Arc 1, Chapter 10

Perception, Misconception

* * *

For the second time in as many days, Jaune Arc was dripping wet and mostly naked.

At least this time he wasn't alone in his misery. Pyrrha and Weiss were in similar straits. Their drenched clothing had been laid out beside his own.

"You know what I'm slowly realizing I'm awful at?" Jaune asked, his teeth chattering as he spoke. When no one ventured to guess, he answered his own question. "Moving out of the way when things are about to hit me..."

He looked down at his own battered body, which was completely bare save for his underwear, and took stock of his injuries. That was the only productive thing he _could_ do at the moment. Weiss had made it abundantly clear that if he lifted his head for any reason, she would remove it from his shoulders.

Technically, being a team leader, Jaune was the only one in any position to be handing out orders, but he felt it wise to be flexible in this instance.

His unexpected plunge down the waterfall had left the knight with a patchwork of welts covering his back and sides. He had somehow managed to hit every single rock outcropping on the way down, so now dynamic movement of any kind was nothing short of excruciating. The fresh gash on the inside of his right foot, inflicted by the Nevermore feather, looked gruesome, but ultimately wasn't too deep. He had wrapped it in a few layers of wet medical bandages for now. His nose was badly bruised where the Beowolf had sucker punched him with his own shield, but thankfully it didn't seem to be broken.

And, not to be outdone, his older wounds had begun to ache again, with fervor.

When Jaune loosened the splint on his broken wrist, he discovered a disgusting rainbow of blacks, blues, and yellows. He had then re-wrapped it again as quickly as possible. It would be hard for someone to imagine how much it hurt just by looking at it, which was _really_ saying something. It looked awful.

Yet despite all of that, the scar on his face had undoubtedly taken first place when it came to sheer pain. Only minutes ago, the wound had begun throbbing unbearably, and nothing he did seemed to relieve the ache. He had directed his aura to the wound, but if anything that had only made the scar burn more intensely.

Jaune thought back to the moment that bone-armored Grimm had slashed him across the face, and nearly snarled. He hated it. That thing had led them all into an ambush - twice in his case. He was furious that it had gotten away again, and equally furious that he hadn't realized what was going on more quickly.

He had let them walk into an obvious ambush. He had been entirely useless. Like always.

When he realized what he was doing, he unclenched his fists and tried to calm himself. Here he was, thinking negatively again. Directionless anger certainly wasn't going to improve their situation. He needed a clear head, to focus.

The still unnamed Grimm could organize others of its species; of that Jaune now had no doubt.

Beowolves didn't hide. They didn't wait patiently. They were always single-minded in their pursuit of prey... until now. Both times the new Grimm had been involved, the Beowolves acted completely against their natures. It _had_ to be issuing them orders, or otherwise leading them in some fashion. And, if that was the case, it meant that now even the most reckless, unintelligent creatures of Grimm could strategize meaningfully. That was... really, really bad.

And worse still, at the moment, Jaune had absolutely no way to warn the others about his realization.

He had lost his scroll, along with all of his supplies, when he was being dragged downriver. Pyrrha's was lost as well. She had set her pack aside just as the most recent bout of fighting began, and hadn't had time to retrieve it before their abrupt removal from the battlefield. Weiss had actually somehow managed to maintain possession of her bag, but her scroll was waterlogged. It still had power, but it froze on a blank screen whenever she tried to turn it on. It might eventually work again after it was given time to dry out, but for the moment, they had no way to contact the rest of RWBY, JNPR, and CRDL.

Jaune desperately hoped that the others would figure out that the perfectly coordinated Beowolf ambush hadn't been a simple coincidence. His friends would be in less danger once they knew to watch out for clever or unusual strategies on the part of the Grimm, rather than the blind charges they were accustomed to. But Jaune knew they might not connect the dots immediately. After all, it had taken him two blunders to learn that lesson himself.

He desperately wanted to find his friends and warn them - but he couldn't.

At the moment, Jaune, Pyrrha, and Weiss were taking shelter in a small cave, a short walk downstream from the spot where they'd landed at the bottom of the waterfall. It wasn't exactly a luxurious hideout, but they were shielded well enough from the wind and cold.

Twenty minutes earlier, Jaune had pulled himself out of the freezing water, shaking and disoriented, but still ready to hike back to the others as quickly as possible. He had fallen a considerable distance, and would either need to scale a slippery, ninety-degree rock face or head back down the mountain in hopes of finding another way around. He had been fully prepared to attempt either option. But, Weiss had astutely pointed out that, wearing wet clothes, and with the temperature still steadily dropping, they would surely freeze to death well before they managed to help anyone.

and, of course, she was right. It seemed that for now, they were stuck here, recovering. They would simply need to trust that the others could fend for themselves.

Meanwhile, Jaune was not so slowly freezing to death, sitting beside Pyrrha - with whom his relationship was still... weird - and Weiss - his former crush, who had brutally rejected him on several different occasions. And they were all also mostly naked. This mission could have been going better...

"Thanks for the assist earlier, Weiss," Jaune offered conversationally, dutifully not looking up from his frost covered toes. He hoped a bit of conversation might lighten the mood, as well as distract them all from the bitter cold.

"Don't mention it," Weiss replied curtly. She sounded as though she may have meant the words literally.

For a while now, she had been attempting to start a fire using only the few damp branches that they had managed to gather. If her increasingly frequent sighs of frustration were any indication, the work wasn't going well. Apparently, she didn't handle failure as gracefully as she handled nearly everything else.

Still shivering, Jaune lifted his gaze just high enough to see the fire (and Weiss's bare ankles). Actually, 'fire' might have been a strong word, he decided. The small bundle of wet twigs and frozen leaves was letting off about as much heat and light as a sparkler, along with some greasy, black smoke.

"I've always really liked your semblance," Jaune continued. "Your glyphs are really cool." He smiled. _They look like giant doilies._

"I suppose," Weiss agreed, still not actually paying him much notice. Then, when another attempt at coaxing the fire failed, she huffed angrily and stomped her foot. "This isn't working at all," she hissed at no one in particular.

"Have you tried Myrtenaster?" Jaune suggested.

"Of course I have!" she snapped at him. "Fire dust is _obviously_ the first thing that I would consider!" Then she sighed loudly, and adopted a softer tone. "All of my dust is soaked. I can't use any of it until it dries out."

"Ah. Right." For a moment, Jaune was tempted to give up and let the conversation die. Weiss was clearly in no mood to speak with him. To be fair, she usually wasn't.

But the heiress caught him off guard - by asking _him_ a question.

"So... have you... discovered your semblance yet?" She inquired, not unkindly.

Was she continuing their little exchange _of her own free will_? She _never_ did that. "Oh... uh..." Jaune replied, surprised. "Well, no... Not yet..." He was almost ashamed to say the words. He was probably the only hunter at Beacon who had no idea what his semblance was. It was like admitting yet another thing he was a failure at.

Pyrrha spoke up for the first time. "But, you are well on your way to finding it," she reassured him. "At this point, it's only a matter of time and experimentation. Remember, you've haven't had your aura unlocked for nearly as long as everyone else. It can be an arduous process."

Jaune almost glanced up at his partner - but he remembered her current state of undress and managed to stop himself.

"Thanks, Pyrrha," he said wholeheartedly, breaking into another small smile. He was always astonished by how confident Pyrrha was that he, Jaune Arc, the goofball, could succeed. Sometimes it _almost_ made him believe it too.

And they were still talking to one another easily enough. So, the kiss hadn't made things _too_ weird between them.

"I'm excited to find out what your semblance is going to be," Pyrrha continued. "Just imagine the possibilities..."

Jaune sneezed. "Well, we'll never find out if I end up an ice sculpture first."

"Which is," Weiss sighed, "beginning to look like a distinct possibility." She had finally decided the task was hopeless, and swept aside the burnt kindling with her foot.

"What are we going to do then?" Pyrrha asked her apprehensively.

Weiss crouched down and began to rummage through her bag. "Our clothes are wet, the blanket is wet, our supplies are wet, _but..._ If I recall correctly, these sleeping bags were _supposed_ to be waterproof." There was the sound of rustling fabric and a zipper being opened. "And... yes. The inside _is_ still completely dry. That means, at the very least, we won't freeze to death tonight. We have... a... sleeping bag..." She trailed off as realization dawned on her.

"We have... _one_ sleeping bag..." Pyrrha clarified.

 _...And three of us_ , Jaune mentally finished his partner's thought. _Shit_.

They all reflected on the ramifications of that fact, in a moment of shared silence.

With his eyes still locked on the ground, Jaune couldn't see Weiss or Pyrrha, but he felt as though he could probably imagine the sort of horrified expressions that they wore... Who would want to sleep so close to him? "You two share it," he muttered quickly. "I'll... see what I can do about the fire."

"Which is _nothing_ ," Weiss replied simply. "We don't have anything else left to burn in here."

"I'll be fine, Weiss. I think I can handle a little bit of cold." Truthfully, Jaune wasn't all that confident about his odds of survival. He had long ago lost the feeling in his extremities. All of them. But, nothing good could come from sharing a sleeping bag with this particular duo...

"Jaune," Pyrrha said firmly, "Your lips are blue."

 _Don't say lips!_ Jaune thought, remembering the kiss again. "Wait... Are you two are looking at me... right now? I thought we all had to look down?!"

"No, only you had to do that," Weiss said matter-of-factly. "Listen, Jaune. I'm sure Pyrrha will agree with me when I say..." She paused to let out a defeated sigh. "...We are not going to let you die just because you're too embarrassed to share a sleeping bag with a girl."

 _Two girls,_ he thought deliriously. _Two nearly naked girls._

"Weiss is right," Pyrrha agreed. "It isn't as though we have much of a choice. This is a matter of life and death."

"I... I guess you're right," Jaune croaked.

"Of course we are," Weiss huffed. "We are going to be professional huntsmen and huntresses in just a few short years. You should behave as such."

Jaune nodded. "You make an excellent point." He debated sprinting from the cave.

"Now, we're all going to have to... _tolerate..._ this for one night," Weiss explained, as she unrolled the sleeping bag onto the cave floor. "And Jaune, I'm sure you won't give us any reason to tie your hands behind your back... Right?"

* * *

The sleeping bag wasn't _small_ by any means. Jaune had used it the previous night. He knew that it could quite comfortably accommodate a single person. Having two people share it might make for a tight fit, with perhaps slightly less personal space than desirable, but it could still be managed.

But crushing all three of the Beacon students inside of the one sleeping bag had been an elaborate contortionist trick, if not a miracle.

After a great deal of shoving and struggling, Jaune had ended up stuffed between Pyrrha and Weiss. The two huntresses were now resting on either side of him, pointedly facing away, as not to be lying front to front... but they were still much, much too close for anyone's comfort.

To his credit, Jaune remained flat on his back and kept both of his hands placed carefully in his lap. He tried hard not to move, or to think, or to even exist at all, really. In hindsight, having the only boy squeeze into the middle was probably inadvisable for any number of reasons...

Meanwhile, Weiss was making a valiant effort to create space where none existed. She continually tried to maneuver herself further away from him, though without much success. It was a hopeless endeavor from the start. To keep their bare skin apart, she would have to tear the sleeping bag at the seams.

"Roll onto your side," Weiss whispered at him angrily. "You're taking up too much room."

"Sorry, Weiss," Jaune replied apologetically. "I'll move..."

He didn't.

Which... which way was he meant to face...? Weiss had been the one to ask him to change his position, but she certainly wouldn't be pleased if he rolled over towards her. That would put the two of them in an extremely compromising position... He imagined it and blushed.

And turning in the other direction would leave him in the exact same predicament - but with Pyrrha instead... Even so, wasn't that the better option? He was much more comfortable with Pyrrha than he was with Weiss, after all. Pyrrha was his friend and his teammate. They were closer.

Well, figuratively. Literally, they were all quite close at the moment...

"Yeah, Jaune," Pyrrha said, squirming. "I'm... also kind of cramped as well."

"Right. Just a sec."

Why were they all _whispering_? Even he was doing it. Hadn't they all been speaking at a perfectly normal volume before they climbed into this thing...? All this whispering was making him even more nervous than he already was. It was weirdly... sensual. He was certain that the girls could hear his frantic heartbeat. He hadn't been trained for this sort of thing. He hunted monsters for a living. _This_ was beyond him. He couldn't possibly move an inch.

"So, are you going to make room or not?" Weiss asked him, growing frustrated.

Jaune conjured up the mental image of a coin, flipped it, forgot to call a side, didn't bother to check which way it landed, and then rolled to face Pyrrha. He decided that she would be less likely to hurt him. He wasn't entirely sure why he thought someone was going to hurt him, but he felt it best to play it safe.

As soon as he moved, he felt Pyrrha's body noticeably tense up against him, which somehow made him even more self-conscious.

When he had still been on his back, his shoulders and legs had formed a sort of protective boundary around him, and that had kept things from getting too personal. Now, however, he was getting to know the girls on either side of him rather... _intimately_. Weiss sounded like she was grinding her teeth.

The whole situation made him feel like he needed a cold shower. He considered crawling back out to the river and drowning himself...

But instead, Jaune ended up committing to an extremely uncomfortable position; one which minimized his skin contact with Weiss and Pyrrha (barely). Then he remained as still as humanly possible - and began to wait patiently for morning. It wasn't as though he was going to be able to sleep.

To make matters worse, his scar was still screaming as though someone was pressing a white-hot branding iron against his face.

Yeah, sleep _definitely_ wasn't going to be coming to take him any time soon...

* * *

...And yet, Jaune must have managed to fall asleep at some point - because he woke up.

It wasn't a gradual process, either. It was a sharp, violent jolt of consciousness.

One moment, he was asleep, maybe even dreaming; and the very next moment, everything around him seemed much, much too busy. His ears were buzzing loudly. Colorful spots flickered and danced on the insides of his eyelids. Every inch of his body tingled as though numb. The air felt too thick and difficult to breathe. He felt light-headed and feverish. He was shaking. He was nauseous. It was impossible to think straight.

He felt like someone had turned on a blender with his brain inside it. What was _happening_ to him?

In a slight panic, Jaune's eyes popped open - but that somehow only made everything even more confusing. He couldn't see straight. So, immediately, he forced them shut again, held his breath, and kept as still as possible. He focused every scrap of his willpower into gathering himself, putting all the pieces back together...

 _Who_ and _where_ was he?

He was... Jaune Arc. He was... in a sleeping bag, in a cave. That was as excellent a start as any...

The scar on his face was throbbing... That was a strangely familiar feeling. He latched onto it - metering the passing of time with each painful pulse. If he wanted to figure out what was happening, he decided, he would need to focus his attention on only one thing at a time... One _sense_ at a time.

 _ **First, hearing...** _

Jaune could hear... rushing water and heavy winds - the familiar sounds of nature. But, why then, was it all so damn _loud_? Every little noise seemed to have been amplified one-hundredfold, and they were beating painfully against his eardrums. He knew for a fact that the only river anywhere nearby was maybe fifty meters away, outside of the cave, and yet, it sounded to him as though it were rushing directly through his skull...

And it was no less overwhelming trying to place the smaller, gentler sounds. Most of them were nonsense to him. He thought he recognized crickets chirping, though now it was more the volume of a revving chainsaw; and distant, dripping water, each bead of which landed like a percussive bomb blast.

A sound he had mistaken for a hurricane had actually been the steady breathing of the girls on either side of him; the crashing thunder was their heartbeats.

Slowly but surely, Jaune matched the abundant sounds to their distinctive sources, and as he did so, he began to find each infinitely more manageable...

 _ **Next, smell...**_

Jaune took a deep breath through his nose - and nearly gagged. He realized, for the first time in his life, exactly how many different scents were floating around in the air. He simply hadn't been able to perceive them until now. Odors were now... heavier, more distinct.

The strongest scent by far was something that might have been flowers - though it had mingled with a strange, chemical smell. Perhaps, industrial cleaner? No, he thought, that didn't feel quite right... He took a few more curious breaths, and with each one he winced a little less.

It eventually occurred to him that what he was smelling was Weiss's perfume.

With that understanding, he inhaled again and discovered that he could pick out a similar scent coming from Pyrrha. Both of their perfumes vaguely reminded Jaune of flowers - if they had been dipped in formaldehyde - but at the same time, they were dissimilar to one another in subtle ways he wouldn't have noticed before.

Neither smell was unpleasant, but both were so thick he could almost chew on them. Meanwhile, behind those masking scents, Jaune could pick up slight traces of his companions' sweat, and oddly enough, he much preferred that to the smells meant to cover it...

Also prominent in the stale cave air was granite, dust, and mildew, but these scents, he decided, were far less enjoyable.

 _ **Next, sight...**_

Jaune opened his eyes again, slowly becoming less afraid and more curious.

The cave interior was certainly much... clearer than it had been; the colors and contrast were sharper. Personally, Jaune had never worn glasses, but suddenly he felt as though he had been blind his entire life. He glanced around excitedly, able to pick out even the smallest of details with ease, examining nicks and scratches on a few of the pebbles lying at the opposite end of the cave. His vision felt like it had to be even better than 20/20. It was like seeing through binoculars.

After a moment, however, he realize that something seemed a bit... off.

But, he wasn't quite sure how to express what was bothering him. A tiny incongruity was scratching at the back of his brain; the sort of discomfort you might experience while trying to make sense of an optical illusion. With a frown, he glanced back and forth, from place to place, between the cave's far wall and its open entrance, trying to comprehend the way doing so warped and distorted his vision...

When Jaune finally realized what he was seeing, he nearly gasped.

It was still night time. It was pitch-black inside of their cave hideout. And yet, he could still see everything with perfect clarity. Before this moment, darkness had always been an empty space in his field of vision, but now, if anything it was more like an extra color. All the darkest places were an odd hue, but he could see into the shadows just as well as he could see in broad daylight.

He had night vision...!

 _ **Next, touch...**_

It was finally beginning to feel as though Jaune was rearranging his hopelessly strewn thoughts back into something resembling order. He should have been confused and worried. He wasn't.

His skin was still tingling.

Curious, he took his right hand and pressed it palm down against his chest. He waited like that for a few seconds, but he noticed nothing out of the ordinary. Somewhat disappointed, he placed his open hand against Pyrrha's bare back, without much thought.

Her skin was freezing - or perhaps his was exceptionally warm. She made an odd noise and shivered.

But, Jaune's sense of touch didn't actually seem to have changed. Pyrrha still felt exactly like Pyrrha and - he maneuvered slightly and pressed his open palm against Weiss's back as well, just to be certain - Weiss still felt exactly like Weiss... Though both of them were still very cold.

 ** _And finally, taste..._**

Jaune pondered a suitable way to test this one. His gaze drifted contemplatively over and along his prone companions. Previously he hadn't been able to see anything, but now he could make them both out quite well with his improved sight. He absently ran his tongue back and forth over his teeth...

Taste, Jaune reminded himself. He had to test his... sense of... uh...

But he found himself quickly losing his train of thought, much too distracted by his sleeping friends. His arm shot out, almost of its own accord, and he pulled the lip of the sleeping bag open so he could see inside. His eyes traced the girls' naked backs from their heads to their feet, and then back up again.

As his mind drifted off to less appropriate places, Jaune was pleasantly surprised to find that his usual nervous blush wasn't kicking in. That little voice in his head was mercifully silent for once, offering none of its usual taunts or chastisements. The peace and quiet in his own head was fantastic. Despite the sudden, unexpected changes he was experiencing, and the almost naked girls in his sleeping bag, he couldn't recall ever having felt quite so... composed.

In fact, it was downright bizarre. He was so calm about all of this...

He shook his head, lowered the covers back down, and tried once again to focus. There were more important things to worry about. For instance...

 ** _Why had he suddenly developed freaking super powers..._?**

* * *

But after some contemplation, the only explanation Jaune could come up with was that perhaps... this was his semblance?

Admittedly, he still wasn't entirely sure what _this_ was, but even the possibility made him _ecstatic_.

Every person who had their aura unlocked eventually developed a semblance; a special power intrinsically linked to certain aspects of their personality. Ruby could run at ridiculous speeds, always leaving behind her distinctive trail of rose petals. Weiss could conjure up her glyphs. Pyrrha could create and manipulate localized magnetic fields. Nora... she... um... ate lightning. Every individual semblance was unique and deeply personal. Pyrrha had only awakened Jaune's aura a short while ago, but already he had spent a great deal of time trying to determine just what his power might be...

Maybe _this_ was it...?

But what, he wondered, did enhanced senses have to do with his personality, exactly?

Of course, he couldn't even be certain how much he had changed. There wasn't really a set of rules or guidelines for these abilities, and they could manifest in any number of peculiar ways. He would need to take a bit of time to experiment, to see what it was he could do exactly.

At just that moment, Jaune's scar flared up more adamantly than ever, as if frustrated that it had been forgotten. He did his best to ignore the pain. There was too much to think about to be worrying about a little... alright, a lot... of discomfort...

Much like earlier, he was way too _excited_ to sleep, though this time, it was for an entirely different reason. Well, for an _additional_ reason, anyway.

Because there wasn't much else to keep him entertained, Jaune was again looking into the sleeping bag, testing his new sight. Weiss would have flayed him if she knew how familiar he was becoming with her back. And Pyrrha, he noted, leaning his head over his partner's shoulder, had a birthmark on the hollow of her neck...

Once again, the lack of an immediate reprimand from his conscience stood strikingly out of place.

 _Nothing to say?_ Jaune asked of the little voice. _Absolutely nothing? You're certain?  
_

But there was no response.

Pyrrha and Weiss were breathing softly and in rhythm. Jaune could hear their hearts beating much more slowly than his own, which he took to mean that they were still sound asleep. Sadly, the two of them were still shivering intermittently. Their skin was ice-cold in the places where it met his own...

Before he even really understood what he was doing, Jaune had thrown his good arm around his Pyrrha's waist, pulling her up against him. He reached out for his aura, and immediately he felt the soothing warmth spread throughout his entire body, beginning inside his chest and flooding outwards.

Under other circumstances, he would have called this a pointless waste of energy - and in most cases he would have been right. But, Jaune had an exceptionally large pool of aura to call from, and in this instance he saw no reason that he shouldn't make use of it. He could make his companions more comfortable. He was the only one who could; if Weiss or Pyrrha were to attempt the same thing, they would almost certainly be exhausted by morning.

Slowly Pyrrha stopped shaking and her body relaxed. She made a satisfied sound and nuzzled backward into his chest.

Jaune realized then that his earlier thoughts had been right on the mark; this _was_ an extremely compromising position. And yet, he continued to find himself entirely immune to unease or embarrassment of any kind, for whatever reason. He idly wondered if perhaps unwavering calm could be another one of his semblance's effects... Aura powered maturity? He almost chuckled.

Weiss drew his attention, shuddering suddenly from the cold. Apparently, even the ice queen wasn't immune. Understandably, Jaune was a bit hesitant to throw an arm around her like he had with his partner. If the Schnee heiress awoke to find him closer to her than absolutely necessary... well, her rapier was close at hand.

 _However_ , he mused, he could claim innocence if she was the one to move towards him...

Jaune focused his aura into his injured left hand - the one not currently occupied with hugging Pyrrha - and nudged Weiss's arm with it. She twitched, and then after a moment, she pressed her arm against him, eager to get nearer to the warmth.

Jaune grinned, pleased with the success of his brilliant plan.

Then, he moved his hand, letting his fingers hover just in front of Weiss's neck. She didn't disappoint, pressing her chin to her chest, trying to catch him. He slipped away instead. And with that, a sort of game of tag began.

Jaune poked at different spots, taking no small pleasure in the adorable ways the sleeping heiress would twist and stretch her body to meet his touch. She was, he decided, much less... abrasive when she was sound asleep.

He placed his hand on top of her own. She clutched at his forearm with delicate, ice-cold fingers. He moved his hand down behind her legs. She shuffled closer, pressing her butt against him. He placed a finger against the base of her spine and then ran it up along her skin. She arched her back to follow it. He placed his open palm against her shoulder and slowly pulled it away. She made a dissatisfied noise and made to follow it, rolling over entirely to face him...

The sudden, growing excitement he felt right then was very unlike the Jaune Arc he thought he knew. All of his muscles were tensed in all of the right ways; he felt like a coiled spring, or a mousetrap... His blood was boiling inside of his veins, and he wondered how his skin wasn't burning the girls, like flames licking at them.

His aura was still humming, radiating warmth, as he brought his hand up again - and, with startling speed, Weiss snatched it, hugging it against her chest. Jaune winced hard as she fondled absently at his broken wrist... but, ultimately, he decided that he was still enjoying himself more than he was suffering.

He had to fight back an excited growl. _Now, Ms. Schnee, this is hardly an appropriate way for an heiress to behave..._

Weiss smiled in her sleep, pleased with herself for finally having caught the warmth.

At just that moment, Pyrrha squirmed against Jaune's front in the most pleasant way, drawing his attention away from Weiss - a feat which, before that moment, the knight would have thought impossible. As he turned his head, he caught Pyrrha's scent again, closer this time. With his improved sense of smell, it was... overwhelming. It made him feel dizzy and blurred his thoughts around the edges... so, naturally, he inhaled a second time, much more deeply.

That put Weiss Schnee entirely out of his mind... along with just about everything else.

Jaune pressed his face hungrily into Pyrrha's neck. He took the arm still wrapped tight around her waist and slipped it up higher. Suddenly, he only knew that he needed to trace as much of her bare skin with his finer tips as he possibly could. Nothing else mattered. His forearm hit the bottom of her bra and he felt the weight of his her breasts on his arm. Pyrrha's breathing hitched for a moment and she let out a small gasp. It rang in his ears indefinitely.

Something in Jaune's head came undone with an audible snap.

He reared back and pressed himself against Pyrrha, grasped at places he shouldn't have. He pulled his lips back and set his teeth on his partners throat. Her heart skipped a beat almost imperceptibly. But, of course, he could hear it. He could hear _everything_ now. It seemed she was finally waking up...

 _Why have I always been trying to fight this?_ Jaune found himself wondering in a daze. _She's already gone out of her way time and time again to show me that she's interested in me. She's beautiful and talented. I trust her with my life. She's the world renowned fighter - Pyrrha. Nikos. This is-_

But, he didn't get to finish his thoughts.

Before he could, he was stricken by sudden, _horrible_ pain, almost beyond his ability to lend it description.

Nothing could possibly have prepared him for it - especially given what was occupying his attention at the moment. His vision swam, and he nearly passed out right then. In an attempt to keep himself conscious, he leaned away from Pyrrha and bit down on his tongue until it bled into his mouth. _  
_

As it turned out, behind him, Weiss had tried to move even closer - accidentally shifting her entire weight over and on top of his broken wrist, which she was still using as her own personal teddy bear. It was significantly less adorable now, he thought, trying not to scream.

There was a grinding sound, as his not yet healed carpal bones clicked up against one another unnaturally.

Though he had no memory of moving, Jaune found himself stumbling out from the mouth of the cave. He walked out into the open air, gasping and grunting and swearing. Maybe he had woken the others when untangled himself from the sleeping bag. Maybe he hadn't. It didn't matter to him in the slightest.

The voice in his head picked that moment to make its triumphant return. _What the hell was all that about, Jaune!?_

"I... I don't know," Jaune groaned truthfully. "I don't..." He dropped to his knees, and then collapsed face-first into the snow.

...A bit of time passed. The knight couldn't have said how much. It was enough time for a fresh layer of snow to fall and cover him, but not enough for him to freeze to death, unfortunately. Neither Weiss nor Pyrrha ever wandered out looking for him. They hadn't noticed him leave. They hadn't woken up.

For some reason that made him giggle to himself. The sound was muffled and distorted by a mouthful of snow. He spit out some blood.

Eventually, with great effort, he managed to sit up. Then, almost immediately, he threw up in the snow. He hadn't eaten for nearly two full days, so it was mostly bile. He was cold. His scar hurt. There was something horribly wrong with him, or there _had been_ something horribly wrong with him...? He wasn't certain which.

 _Jaune. What is going on?_ the voice demanded. _Why wouldn't you listen to me?_

"I couldn't... hear you." Jaune replied stupidly. He was talking to himself again.

 _That's weird. Because I was all but shouting for you to stop doing... well, everything you were doing.  
_

"I'm sorry." He really was. "I'm not sure what happened."

 _Well, the last few days have treated you like a piñata. Maybe, you've finally lost your mind. Like I've been saying, you aren't cut out for this hunter stuff...  
_

This time, Jaune couldn't help but agree with his conscience. He thought about what he'd just done - his downright _animalistic_ little display back in the cave - and he blushed furiously (so that trait was back). _Why_ had he done that? _How_ had he done that? Normally, he would have been too embarrassed to even stand next to pretty girls without tripping over his own feet, or accidentally sticking one of them in his mouth (his feet, not the girls). That really hadn't been like him...

Under normal circumstances, his self-control was more than enough to keep his baser thoughts in check. He knew that he didn't deserve a relationship with Pyrrha, and she certainly didn't deserve to wind up stuck with him. **That** was the reason he had always been trying so hard to avoid... that sort of situation...

He looked up at the sky, as if he might find an answer to his problems somewhere in the clouds. Remnant's shattered moon was shining brightly.

A while later, Jaune decided it would be best to move back into the cave. He could sleep in a corner... a respectful distance away from the two huntresses. It was too dangerous to be out here alone at night, while also in such a awful state of mind. If the Grimm were to take notice of him, he wouldn't be able to see them coming...

Jaune froze.

He blinked a few times in realization, quickly glancing around him. He... he couldn't see! Well, actually, that wasn't entirely true. He could still _see;_ just not as well. It was totally dark and he could no longer make out any of the area around him - only the blurred silhouettes of trees and a lot of deep shadows.

His enhanced sight and hearing and smell - and probably taste, he'd wager - were all conspicuously absent. His semblance was gone, or otherwise turned off.

Maybe, he thought, the sudden pain in his wrist had done something to his semblance? After everything he had just been able to experience, he now felt blind and deaf and kind of helpless. He reached for the little spark inside himself and focused his aura to see if he could make his powers return to him. They didn't...

However, the golden light of Jaune's aura, essentially his second skin, looked... odd. For some reason, it was flecked here and there with hardly noticeable bits of gray. He turned an arm over in front of his face, examining the bizarre patches curiously. He had never heard of anything like this happening to anyone before... Growing slightly worried, he scrambled down to the river, bent down, and looked at his refection in the running water. He took a few seconds, blinking his eyes some more to make sure they were working correctly...

Then, he screamed.

 _The scar on his face, running from his forehead to cheek, was now pitch-black and writhing as though it were alive. A sticky substance that looked like ink or tar was spilling out of the wound and slithering all across his face. His right eye - the one directly beneath the scar - was deep red. And glowing. At the seams around his eyeball, black tendrils were clawing their way out, like a thousand tiny centipede legs, raking the surrounding skin to bloody ribbons._

Howling in terror, Jaune keeled over backwards away from the water. He fell onto his back in the mud, desperately grasping at his face...

...But everything felt... normal. He couldn't _feel_ any awful wounds. He couldn't _feel_ any slippery blood or oozing black gunk. With a choked sob, shaking violently, he began to crawl back to the edge of the water. He took a deep, steadying breath - and checked himself again.

He was fine. He was badly bruised, and he sported a few scratches, and his scar looked ugly - rather than dashing as he'd hoped. But as far as he could tell, he was fine. For the moment.

"That... I didn't find my my semblance at all," Jaune muttered to himself deliriously. And he knew it was true. "Something's wrong with my me..."

The little voice started to speak. _Well, obviously, Jaune, but what in the world could-?_

 _ **Oh no, how awful,**_ a second voice - one that Jaune _didn't_ recognize - hissed inside of his head, interrupting. _**But, whatever could be wrong, Jaune?**_ Then the voice laughed. The noise was unpleasant and slimy, like his skull was being filled up with mucous. ** _Everything is perfectly fine.  
_**

And then, despite the fact that he was now sick with fear and sick with disgust, Jaune was suddenly _smiling_.


	11. All Out in the Open

Arc 1, Chapter 11

All Out in the Open

* * *

 _Ruby Rose was cold..._

Faced with an approaching pack of Beowolves and a circling Nervermore, her team had opted for a tactical retreat of sorts. It had been less organized then she would have liked, but, to be fair, there had been a lot happening at the time. Being the fastest hunter present, she, Ruby, _team leader_ , had made it her responsibility to distract the Nevermore; so she'd held her ground for as long as possible, directing covering fire at the creature's face while her teammates ran. Unfortunately, that also meant that she'd been the last to disengage from the fight, and for that reason, she had been left with... exactly no idea where everyone had gone.

Afterward, she had followed her tracks back downhill, tracing the route that they had been following, but she hadn't found any of the others. They all must have abandoned the path to find a place to hide, and by now they were likely safely tucked away in a ditch or crevice somewhere on the mountainside.

Unfortunately, by the time Ruby had contacted her teammates with her scroll, the sky had already been darkening. If she tried to track them down now, she would only end up stumbling around in the dark, or worse, accidentally drawing the Grimm to wherever her friends had set up their camp. So, for one night, she was toughing it out all alone.

It was only a single night. How hard could it be?

Currently, Ruby was plopped down in a hollow at the base of a large tree. She was a two hour hike down the mountain from where the fighting had taken place, though she had covered the entire distance in only about ten minutes by using her semblance. Finding a safe (and comfortable) place to hold up had been a real challenge, but she was pleased enough with her accommodations.

Another blast of icy wind forced Ruby to pull her blanket more tightly around herself and squeeze even deeper into her sleeping bag. The cold was creeping through all of her defenses, through the tree trunk and several layers of thermal blanket, right into her blood and bones. This, she decided, would definitely not have been the weather for a combat skirt. For once, she was happy to be wearing pants - though she would never tell Weiss that.

The feeling in her hands would come back eventually, Ruby assured herself, as she massaged each finger individually in an attempt to keep her blood flowing. She really hoped that none of the others had ended up stranded outside in the wind and snow...

 _Even more than cold, however, Ruby was worried..._

She had, of course, immediately contacted everyone that she could. The group had split up more than she would have liked. Yang was hiding with Ren and Nora; and although she was also on her own, Blake had assured everyone that she would be fine; but as of yet, no one had heard from Weiss, Jaune, or Pyrrha...

That made Ruby anxious. It probably shouldn't have. It wasn't as though she doubted her friends' abilities. She had seen them all in action plenty of times, and she had developed a healthy respect for their individual talents. She knew that Weiss had (somehow) survived seventeen years without having Ruby as a partner - so _surely_ she could make it through one more night. Pyrrha was about as close to invincible as a Beacon student could be. Jaune was... er... Jaune.

No matter the danger, she believed in all of them. She just really wanted to talk to them right now, to make absolutely certain that they were all okay...

 _Even more than worried, however, Ruby was tired..._

Actually, exhausted may have been a better word. She had spent the entire day either hiking around in a forest or hiking up the side of a mountain. Then they had battled the Grimm. _Then_ she had sprinted all the way back down the side of the same mountain... Was it any surprise she was feeling drained?

Darkness had fallen quite some time ago, but Ruby wasn't exactly sure how much longer it would be before the sun rose. However, she did know that she couldn't afford to fall asleep for any reason. She was all alone. If any Grimm came by and she was caught napping...

Ruby braved the howling winds, peeking out from her sleeping bag to ensure that Cresent Rose was still right where she had left it. It rested only a few short inches away, propped up against the inside of the tree hollow. Good, she thought. She would be ready to _eviscerate_ at a moments notice if she needed to...

Then she let out a tiny sneeze and retreated back into her blanket fort.

Another reason she couldn't sleep: she needed to diligently watch her scroll. If anyone happened to call for help, she wanted to be ready. She was a team leader, and she was going to take that responsibility _very_ seriously. Everyone was depending on her. She needed to work harder than anyone else...

...Even if, usually, she would have been sound asleep _hours_ and _hours_ ago...

"Eyes open, soldier!" Ruby mumbled to herself. "Stay frosty. Watch for tangos." Her eyelids slowly drifted shut, and her head nodded off to one side. After a moment, she remembered herself and sprung back to attention. "Maybe... I can just rest one eye at a time..." she said quietly.

* * *

"Ugghh..." Yang groaned, rubbing at her eyes with a balled fist. "Oh, uh... Good morning, Nora..."

Nora continued snoring loudly.

"Why is this giving me déjà vu...?"

Apparently, Yang noted, at some point during the night, Nora had climbed up on top of her. The excitable girl had then stuffed herself headfirst under Yang's top; her pink hair was poking out through the collar, tickling at Yang's collarbone. It looked as if the two huntresses were fighting to wear the same shirt. It was Yang's _favorite_ shirt, actually. And of course it was ruined now, stretched out beyond salvage. Weiss was _not_ going to be pleased about the... altered neckline. Yang was undoubtedly going to wind up on the receiving end of a long-winded speech about modesty and proper huntress dress etiquette...

Well, Jaune might appreciate her new look at the very least. He was always sneaking glances at her girls.

Yang grabbed Nora around the waist and attempted to yank her free, but she clung on admirably, arms wrapped tight around Yang's ribs. Eventually, and with no small amount of effort, Yang managed to pry the girl free. She then tossed Nora's wriggling body back onto her own sleeping bag.

"Well, good night then," Yang sighed, rolling over to continue snoozing. It was much too early to be awake. The sun was barely even up, and she had never been much of a morning person. The previous day had been nothing short of exhausting. Even now, she was still so _damn_ tired...

Unfortunately, after a few moments, Nora realized she was now alone. She made a loud whining noise of complaint, scooted back over to Yang, and grabbed at her.

"Nora, quit it," Yang muttered groggily, trying to strong arm the girl away. "C'mon stop. It's not even that cold anymore. Use your blanket."

But, as Yang backed away, Nora only struggled more fiercely. She wrapped a leg around Yang's thighs and an arm around her neck, clinging to her with a death grip. At the same time, Nora's other hand traveled around to Yang's back, snaked under her shirt, and somehow maneuvered itself under her bra-strap.

"Why. Are. You. So. Strong?" Yang grunted, trying to escape.

It felt as though she was snuggling with an anaconda; the harder she fought, the tighter the hold became. Nora's limbs constricted all at once, and Yang felt the bones in her legs and back crack. Perhaps realizing her arm was stuck, Nora tried to tug it free from Yang's bra, pulling at it repeatedly and uselessly. Each sudden yank painfully constricted Yang's chest. And all the while, Nora was almost desperately squishing her face into the brawler's neck.

"Ouch! Okay, you win," Yang gasped. "Nora, I surrender. I give up. Mercy!"

Nora whined quietly.

Yang pause for a second, confused, and listened more closely...

" _Ren...!_ " Nora whined in her sleep, louder this time, " _Please, don't leave..._ "

So, the powerhouse of team JNPR was having a nightmare...

Yang sighed, giving in almost immediately. "Alright, fine. I guess you can stay then." She could hardly shove the poor girl away when she looked so scared and helpless. Not for the first time, Yang cursed her compulsive need to take care of anyone and everyone who looked like they needed taking care of. She stopped struggling, and after a few moments, Nora also eased up on her own grip. Apparently Nora had just needed to be sure that whoever she was clinging to in her dreams wasn't about to leave her all alone. Her frown almost immediately transformed into a big, goofy grin.

Though she still wasn't exactly happy about being woken up, Yang couldn't muster up the energy to be angry at-

Nora lowered her face back into Yang's chest, tugging her shirt collar out the way, with a loud tearing sound.

Yang clenched her fists, counted to ten in her head, and took deep breaths.

It had been a pretty rough night, though Ren had taken the brunt of the abuse. He had caught a relatively nasty blow to the shoulder from a Beowolf while they were all trying to escape. To the surprise of no one, he had swooped in to take the hit for Nora, who had been too distracted to see the Grimm approaching her. Luckily, the wound wasn't immediately fatal. He would lack anything resembling dexterity in his right arm for a while, but he would live, and eventually recover.

Yang and Nora shared exactly zero medical experience between them, however, so the process of tending to the wound and bandaging Ren up had been a slow and painful process of... trial and error. They had all learned a lot together. Ren hadn't been pleased.

At the rate that they were taking hits, it was beginning to seem like team JNPR might run out of strapping young men...

Of course, Ren suffered through the night in stoic silence. Nora, on the other hand, more than made up for the quiet by panicking and crying out every time Ren so much as winced. She circled him endlessly, an overprotective, nervous mess; forcing drinking water, survival rations, and company on him. Eventually Yang had had to pull Nora away out of fear that she was going to smother her poor partner to death. Obviously, Nora blamed herself entirely for Ren's injury.

Yang, of course, had been more than happy to offer a few _suggestions_ as to how the pink-haired girl might make it up to him.

She had never seen Nora so red before.

When they had eventually turned in for bed, Yang placed all three of their sleeping bags close together, with hers in the middle, and then threw an arm around each of her fellows hunters' shoulders. The night had been as cold as she'd predicted, and they weren't especially well shielded from the elements. They were taking up shelter between two enormous boulders on the mountainside, using them to block the worst of the fierce winds, but still, even _she_ had been able to feel the chill. And so, Yang had remained in the middle, her aura humming, acting as a human furnace. Nora and Ren were exceptionally appreciative of that.

Now slightly more awake, Yang turned to look at Ren - and found him fast asleep.

" _Shit!_ " she growled, bolting into an upright position.

The three hunters had all been asleep at the same time, she realized, staring at her two companions in horror. They had been completely defenseless. But for how long? Nervously, Yang glanced around their hideout, half expecting Grimm to be converging on them from all sides. Fortunately, that wasn't the case.

Whose turn had it been to keep watch? Initially, they had meant to swap the role of sentry every few hours so they would all have a chance to get some sleep. Yang wracked her brain, trying to remember if she had accidentally nodded of while she was on duty... Or maybe it had been Nora? Honestly, it wasn't even unthinkable that Ren might have crashed during his watch, given his injury. They had all been really tired. Yang was _still_ really tired...

The only thing she was certain of was that they were all currently lucky to even be alive. That was... an infuriatingly amateur mistake.

Yang extracted herself from Nora's grip, whispering quiet apologies to the oblivious girl, and climbed up to her feet. Almost immediately, her vision blurred out of focus, and she began to tilt over to one side. She had to take a few clumsy, stumbling steps and hold her arms out to steady herself.

"Whoa," she groaned aloud. "That's probably not good..."

It was entirely possible, she thought, that she may have _overexerted_ herself over the last few days and nights. Maybe. Just a little bit.

While she hadn't exactly been hemorrhaging aura, she _had_ been making use of it almost constantly for two full days. It had been the only thing keeping her warm, considering that she had - rather foolishly, she was beginning to realize - opted not to take one of the jackets that everyone else was wearing. And, she _had_ made _wildly liberal_ use of her aura while she was fighting that pack of Beowolves the previous day...

In retrospect, she probably should have been taking things a bit easier.

Fighting to stay upright, Yang staggered over to her backpack, then found and withdrew her scroll. She needed to see if anyone had tried to contact them during the night. There might be a message from someone; Ruby, Blake, or Weiss; Jaune or Pyrrha.

She turned on the display and stared at it, confused. She had several missed calls... from Cardin? That was odd.

Before her tired brain could make sense of that, Yang was surprised to find that, all of a sudden, she was lying in the snow. She could see clouds and blue sky, and she wasn't exactly certain how or when she had ended up on her back. Her arms and legs were reacting sluggishly. Her aura was crackling.

"Also not good," Yang grumbled. Her aura, displayed on her scroll, was in the red and blinking. Nearly empty. She was going to need some time to recover. The cold was finally getting through to her, and she was feeling about as comfortable as someone wearing shorts and lying in snow would typically feel.

A second amateur mistake, then. She was trying to recall if she had ever had a worse morning... when something wet landed on her forehead...

Yang tilted her head back - and found herself looking into the open, drooling maw of a Beowolf.

 _"_ Oh... Hello there, _"_ she greeted it nervously.

 _I still haven't returned Blake's book..._

The Beowolf lunged. Yang tried to deliver a jab. Her arm didn't move half as fast as she would have liked. Ember Celica fired off with a resounding bang.

* * *

Jaune Arc whistled as he pulled his clothes on. He slipped on his undershirt, pulled on his jacket, and then dropped to one knee to lace up his boots.

Or rather, the new Jaune Arc did.

The old Jaune Arc had spent a long, lonely night shivering against the rock wall of the cave, trying desperately to fight an enemy that he couldn't actually comprehend. Slowly, over the course of hours, with vindictive patience, the shadowy fog had retaken him, and his new senses had returned. The very same ones he had been so proud to have finally discovered, when he had still mistakenly thought they were his semblance.

For whatever reason, he hadn't seemed quite as thrilled the second time around.

 ** _Like a drowning man trying to fight the ocean away,_** the strange, new voice had stated gleefully.

Now, Jaune - the new Jaune - wasn't sure why he had ever been so troubled by this newcomer. Everything it said was so rational.

At the moment, Jaune was rummaging through Weiss's backpack, pulling out supplies at random, sparing them a glance, and then tossing them aside. He was extremely hungry, hungrier than he had ever been before, and he knew that Weiss still had food rations stowed away somewhere...

The old Jaune might not have gone through the bag without permission. He probably wouldn't have stolen from a sleeping friend.

 _ **Take it,**_ the voice had said. _**You're hungry and she has food. What else is there to think about?**_

Nothing, he supposed.

Not to mention, the old Jaune had spent the greater part of last night stabbing at his own hands with a hunting knife, because he had realized that pain offered him a few moments of relief from the monster in his head. Really, that fellow had done some bizarre things. Why take his opinions into consideration at all?

The new Jaune had ventured out to search for more kindling, managed to get a fire going, warmed himself and dried off his clothes, re-bandaged his injuries, experimented with his new senses, and even slept for a short while to recover some of his strength; all in a short time and without help.

It was clear which Jaune was the superior one, really.

He finally found the rations at the bottom of Weiss's pack. He ripped the wrappers off of all four packages and tore into them with his teeth, devouring them one by one. A single bar was supposed to be packed with enough calories to last a person an entire day, but even after they were gone, he was still hungry...

 ** _The others,_** the voice said simply.

Jaune looked to his sleeping friends. _What about them?_ he asked curiously.

But whatever the voice was about to say was interrupted - as Weiss yawned loudly, awoke, and sat up in place. She glanced down at the sleeping bag, and upon finding it short one person, looked around worriedly. "Jaune?"

"I'm here," Jaune replied. He noticed that the words sounded very strange in his mouth. Uncomfortable.

Weiss spotted him, and her lips turned up at the corners. It was almost grin. It might one day have grown into one. Evidently, Weiss was pleased to have survived the night, and awoken to find that both of her companions had done the same. "Good morning," she said with practiced indifference.

"Hello, Weiss," he said. That felt wrong as well; the verbal equivalent of trying to throw a punch while you were dreaming. He realized then that he also had no idea what expression he had on his face - and that he couldn't remember how exactly to control that... He quickly decided that it wasn't important anyhow.

Weiss stifled another small yawn. "You started a fire?" she asked in mild disbelief, noticing his handiwork. "I am... actually impressed."

"Yes."

She gave him a questioning look, but continued anyway. "...And, our clothes are dry as well...?"

Jaune glanced over to the place where he had left the girls' clothes - in a ball on the cave floor. "Maybe," he offered.

It seemed a less comprehensive answer than Weiss would have liked, but she accepted it. "Well, alright then," she said, "I'm going to get dressed now, so, you turn around - and be certain keep your eyes closed or I'll-"

 _ **Are you going to let her order you about, like one of her family servants?**_

Jaune's vision blurred red. In an instant, he had crossed the chamber, grabbed Weiss by the throat with his uninjured hand, and, in one smooth motion, lifted her up and out of the sleeping bag and into the air. She let out a surprised gasp, but couldn't manage any words. Her legs danced, her toes unable to reach the ground.

Pyrrha, still sound asleep, didn't so much as stir.

It was at that moment that Jaune realized just how difficult it was to carry a person with only a single arm. Even someone as slight as Weiss. The muscles in his forearms and shoulders burned, only made worse by the fact that Weiss was clawing at his arm, trying to shift some of her own weight off of her neck. With a flicker of light, Jaune's aura hummed to life, strengthening his arm and healing the small scratches caused by Weiss's nails.

There were several unfamiliar, black blotches covering the previously pristine golden light, but Jaune paid them no notice.

 _ **Like carrying a princess, eh Jaune?**_ the voice chuckled. **_Isn't this what you've always wanted?_**

Jaune pulled Weiss's face in very close to his own.

" _Stop telling me what to do_ ," he growled. The old Jaune had never said anything with even half as much conviction in his entire life.

Eyes wide in shock, Weiss tried her best to nod. She looked so defenseless, on the verge of tears, naked and hurt and confused...

Still furious, Jaune glanced down at Pyrrha, checking to see whether she was still asleep, and then returned his attention to Weiss. Her face was turning red, and she had begun attempting to pry his fingers off of her, though it didn't do much good. He waited a few more heartbeats, and then lowered her back to the ground. When he released her, her legs buckled beneath her modest weight, and she dropped to the cave floor, clutching her throat, coughing and sputtering.

Before she could recover, or Pyrrha could wake, Jaune was out of the cave, walking away through the already melting snow.

The red tint marring his vision didn't seem to be fading, he noticed. He brought a hand up to examine his eyes - and was surprised to find that his cheek was wet... Tears? That was certainly strange, but he could worry about it later. He wiped the wetness away on his sleeve and put it out of his mind.

 _ **Where are you going?**_ the voice demanded. _**Why didn't you-?**_

"I need to find that Grimm." Jaune replied uncertainly.

 _ **The Afterthought.**_

"The Afterthought," he agreed. _Of course, it was called an Afterthought._ How hadn't he known that already? It was perfectly obvious.

 _ **Why?**_

"That Grimm is... is the reason we're out here. Our mission. I'm going to kill it... Aren't I?"

 _ **Are you?**_ The voice seemed to find that idea amusing. _**Its seems that, e** **ven now, some small part of you is still hanging on...  
**_

Jaune's scar crawled and he shivered. Not from discomfort.

 ** _It won't be for much longer.  
_**

* * *

Farther up the mountain, Blake picked up her buzzing scroll.

" _Finally_ ," Cardin growled at her, before she could speak. "Why are none of you answering your fucking scrolls?"

"I'm... not sure," Blake admitted. She hardly wanted to confess to Cardin that she was beginning to worry for the very same reason. Not a single one of her teammates or friends had been in contact since the sun had risen... "What do you want?"

"Listen, I need you to... uh..." Cardin trailed off, blinking at the screen distractedly. His mouth fell open in shock.

" _What_? What do you need me to do?" Blake asked, annoyed. She didn't have the patience for this.

Cardin remained speechless for a few more moments, but then, he began to chuckle. "Nice ears," he laughed.

Blake winced. Hard. She realized her mistake then, much, much too late. Her bow was still wrapped carefully around her wrist - meaning her Faunus ears were on full display, shown to one of the people she least wanted to know about her heritage. She had been so comfortable without the bow that she'd somehow forgotten...

She turned her scroll away from her face, for what little good that did now. "I... I..." she stuttered uselessly, trying for an excuse.

"Worry about your deformities later," Cardin said simply. "I need you to tell me where you are. We're near the last coordinates that Arc sent us, but there's fuck-all here, and seeing as you lot clearly aren't capable enough to complete the mission... Well, I figured we could come kill this big, bad Grimm for you."

"Right," Blake replied, her jaw clenched tight. "I'm sending you my location." It took every ounce of her self control not to smash her scroll. _Deformities._

"Don't worry, kitty," Cardin said. "We'll be sure to get rid of every last monster."


	12. Worn

Arc 1, Chapter 12

Worn

* * *

Still there was no answer.

Only more of the same radio silence. Blake slid her scroll back into her pocket.

Her worries were becoming steadily more difficult to disregard, but still she was hesitant to leave and search for her missing friends. The Grimm, their target, was currently within her sights. Back when everyone else scattered, Blake had taken advantage of the chaos and confusion to double back. She had then scaled a cliff face, and from a ledge high up above, she had lain prone and kept track of the creature all throughout the long, freezing night.

She hadn't slept, and it hadn't moved.

It was currently still stood at the crest of the hill where they had first found it. Beowolves wandered aimlessly all about the area, though they never strayed too far from their bipedal Grimm companion. They were almost... orbiting around it. And for that reason, there had been no real opportunity for Blake to kill the creature; not without first fighting her way through the entire pack. That was an unwelcome prospect.

Not to mention, the most obvious threat, the Nevermore, was still here as well. After chasing off the other huntsmen and huntresses with a rain of feathers, it had landed and taken up a silent post much like the Beowolves. Now, it slept… or waited with its wings folded in to its chest and its head down.

Blake knew that there was no chance that she could kill that beast by herself.

 _But why were these Grimm waiting here instead of pursuing the other hunters...?_ _  
_

The Faunus girl knew she could do little enough without help, but at the same time, she couldn't bear to give up this exceptional position if it wasn't absolutely necessary. All of the biggest threats were right here, gathered in one place. Easy targets. This height advantage would prove invaluable - if only her team would answer her messages so that they could coordinate a counter-attack. She wasn't sure what could be so thoroughly distracting them at a time like this...

But her imagination had been helpfully providing her with a number of increasingly gruesome possibilities. She wondered if it might not be best to give up on the mission for now and leave to find the others...

For the hundredth time, she decided to wait just a bit longer. She had only separated from the group in the first place because she trusted her teammates to handle themselves. Hopefully they would be in contact soon.

Carefully, Blake crept backwards, away from the ledge she was perched on, and out of sight.

Once again, one of the many roving Beowolves had managed to climb its way much nearer to her hiding place than she was comfortable with. She could hear it panting somewhere nearby, and the sound was grating on her nerves. The creature would need to be removed quietly. Like the first few had.

In a blur of motion, Blake dashed toward the lone Grimm, reaching it well before it could even realize a threat was near. She grabbed the creature by its muzzle and slipped Gambol Shroud deep into the base of its throat - and what would have been a howl instead escaped as a pitiful gurgling sound. She put one foot against the creature's chest and shoved it over backwards, sliding her blade free. The Beowolf jerked around miserably - not quite dead yet - but it wasn't making enough noise to draw its brethren. So, Blake left it alone to its death throes.

Exterminating the Grimm was her profession, certainly, but that didn't mean she found any joy in the task. Her first few kills had been... exhilarating. Now it was more like pulling weeds, only to find that by the next day, they had grown back in even greater numbers. It was tedious.

As Blake was moving back over to reassume her vantage point, her scroll buzzed inside her bag.

She drew the device out so quickly that she nearly fumbled it, and then checked the caller. It was Ruby. The Faunus breathed a sigh of relief and answered. "Ruby, I-" But she froze almost immediately.

It was Cardin's face on the screen.

Perplexed, Blake double checked the number. The call had definitely come from Ruby's scroll…

"Well, hello again, Blake" Cardin said. He seemed pleased by how surprised she was. "Did you know that your ears twitch when you're confused?"

She ignored the jab. "Why do you have this scroll…?"

"I think we found something that belongs to you." Cardin tilted the the screen slightly – to reveal what appeared to be Ruby, slung unceremoniously over one of his enormous shoulders.

Blake's heart stopped. "Ruby! Is she-?"

"Fine," Cardin replied, sounding bored. "We only found her because we heard her loud-ass snoring. She was wrapped in some blankets inside a tree trunk. She doesn't seem hurt and she has a steady pulse, but we haven't been able to get her to wake the hell up."

"And we've tried _everything_ ," an amused voice that Blake recognized as Sky Lark's called from somewhere behind Cardin. "Splashing water in her face. Shouting. Shaking her back and forth. We might have to start getting more creative."

Cardin shot his off-screen teammate an annoyed look, and then continued, "You know what? I'll be kind enough to carry her all the way up the mountain to you lot, but then she's your problem. And why is she so far away from the rest of you, anyway? What on Remnant are all of you even _doing_?"

Blake hadn't heard a word of what he'd said. She was much too relieved to find that her leader was alive and well. Knowing Ruby, she had probably tried to stay awake through the night and failed miserably. And when Ruby was completely exhausted, she wouldn't wake up if a bomb went off next to her...

Blake smiled to herself.

But it didn't last. Quickly enough, she remembered that she was supposed to be furious. "Hey," she growled at Cardin. "Stop hauling her around like she's baggage. That's hardly a dignified way to treat one of your fellow hunters."

Cardin chuckled. "She should count herself lucky that I'm not dragging her along by her feet."

"You're scum."

"Well, I can see your in a mood, kitty, so I'll leave you to… well, whatever it is that you're doing. I just wanted to let you know that we found your esteemed leader. Ah-" Cardin suddenly looked away at a disturbance in the distance. "Gunfire...?" He looked back to Blake. "We can chat later."

"Don't you dare-" Blake began - but Cardin had already ended the call.

She snatched her backpack out of the snow and used it to muffle a frustrated shout. Already, she wasn't sure how much of that bigot's provocation she could stomach. The next time he used that nickname, _kitty_ , she was going to tear his tongue out through his teeth.

And who had he heard fighting? More of her friends dealing with the creatures of Grimm? For all she knew, he was only messing with her...

Now somehow more agitated then she had been, Blake returned to her earlier position overlooking the pack of Beowolves and their target-

-right in time to see Jaune Arc - weaponless and entirely alone - slowly climbing the hill towards the horde.

* * *

Nora brought Magnhild down on a Beowolf's head so hard that the rock beneath its feet cracked. Then, with a shove, she threw the now lifeless creature aside.

Only for three more to eagerly advance to take its place, crawling low on all fours.

She swung her hammer horizontally with all of her strength, and tossed the lot of them as though they weighed nothing at all. And then, making use of the brief reprieve that was afforded her, she shifted her weapon back to its grenade launcher form, and fired several shots into the howling crowd of Beowolves.

There were several loud _thuds_ , and then black limbs and heads and torsos were sailing in every direction. Bright pink smoke drifted up and away from several newly impacted craters. But, even then, more Beowolves crawled over the disintegrating bodies of their friends and drew closer, snapping at each other for a turn at the huntress. They leapt out from the cloud of smoke, and continued circling her, prepared to attack whenever they noticed an opening.

Nora switched her weapon back to hammer mode and demolished them as they tried.

She must have been at this for nearly an hour now, though it felt more like entire days had passed. The waves of Grimm seemed endless. Never in her life had Nora seen so many of the creatures gathered in one place. If the they hadn't been evaporating as quickly as she killed them, she would have already been suffocated under a mountain of their corpses...

This, she realized, was what made the Grimm such a threat.

 _Had she ever, even for a moment, taken them seriously...?_ Not in recent memory. This wasn't fun anymore.

Nora didn't have so much as a free second to glance back at her two friends. Ren and Yang were crouched behind her, wedged into the space where they had all slept, between two large boulders. If they hadn't been so safely tucked away, the two injured hunters would have almost certainly been dragged away and devoured by the Grimm already... But, because of where they were positioned, the monsters would need to first go through Nora to reach them.

And that, she had already decided, wasn't going to happen.

Another Beowolf tried. Another Beowolf died.

All of this had begun with Nora and Ren being shocked awake by the roar of a shotgun blast, only to find Yang badly bleeding and unconscious beside a dead Beowolf. They had quickly pulled her body to safety, but unfortunately the loud noise had already drawn more monsters to them. And then, the resulting bout of combat had drawn yet more. Now, the Grimm were almost beyond counting, drawn in from miles around.

Worse yet, Nora wasn't even certain how badly Yang was hurt, and it didn't look like she would be allowed a chance to check on her friend's condition any time soon...

Another Beowolf sprung forward, and again Nora sent it spiraling away through the air.

For a while, Ren had been able to alleviate some of the burden by providing suppressing fire, but eventually the mass of black bodies had simply absorbed all of his ammunition, eaten it. From time to time he still danced in and out around Nora to deliver a strike, however he was still weak from the blood loss of the previous night, and his movements were beginning to slow down considerably… At the moment he was resting, taking a moment to recover.

And so, most of the work fell to Nora. Their survival was her responsibility now.

"Whose next!?" she roared in challenge, as a mix of sweat and blood ran down the side of her face. "I haven't found a Grimm yet that can keep up with me! So, go ahead, step right up! Come one, come all!"

She skipped forward, batted a Beowolf in the nose with the grip of her hammer, and then skipped away again. When it growled and made to follow after her, she smashed its teeth into the back of its throat.

"It certainly isn't gonna be _you_ that gets to eat me!"

Another Beowolf climbed atop some of its brethren and leapt in wildly from above. Nora held up Magnhild with both hands and caught the blow - before head-butting the creature back into the crowd.

"Or _you_! It definitely won't be _you_!"

She swung the hammer again, forcing herself a bit of extra space so she could transform her weapon back into a grenade launcher. Once more she fired it randomly into the mob of Grimm. She needed to continually thin out the herd or they would surely force their way through with sheer numbers and mass eventually.

"So why don't you all just go home! I'm enjoying this! Don't expect me to get tired any time soon!"

There were a few more hefty _thuds,_ accompanied by pink smoke and a thin mist of black blood - and then a final, bone-chilling _click_.

Nora looked down at her weapon. She had run out of ammo as well.

"Uh oh…" She sighed, her chest rising and falling with rapid breaths. "Hey, Ren, is there any chance that we can maybe... carry Yang and run away? I can like… uh… open up a path or something? I'm actually sort of… well… getting tired... serendipitously enough." She tried to grin sheepishly.

The smoke cleared, and again the Beowolves began to nose closer. The blasts hardly seemed to have diminished their numbers, or perhaps even more were still gathering at the rear of the pack, crawling forward to fill in the gaps.

"We need to try _something_ ," Ren agreed, though he didn't sound especially hopeful. "Running seems as good an idea as any."

"Alright." She nodded. "And, if you were to guess, what are our chances of making it out of this…?" She thought she already knew. She was just scared, stalling - and she really wanted to hear the sound of Ren's voice for a little while longer. It was helping to keep her calm.

Ren looked around, as though to make certain that, yes, they were in fact horribly surrounded. "Not amazing, Nora. Not amazing."

One of the more confident Beowolves charged. Nora shattered its ribs with a powerful blow. But her hammer was beginning to feel heavy in her hands. Her swings were losing power. She wasn't sure how many more hits she had in her. "Either way," she grunted, "sooner is probably gonna be better than later..."

"Right." Ren pulled Yang's unconscious body onto his back. "On three then?"

"You count it out," Nora replied, slamming another Beowolf aside. This one actually managed to get back up. "And, Ren, thanks for, well, you know, _everything_. We were good together - well you know, not together, together…"

 _Oh no_ , Nora thought to herself. _Am I about to start crying_? _That would be so... girly.._ She tried to rub at her eyes with her shoulder inconspicuously.

Ren climbed to his feet. "One."

This was all happening too fast. There was more that she wanted to say... "Oh, and, also, thanks again for watching out for me yesterday… like you always do," She said quickly. "Sorry you got hurt because of me."

"Two."

Too much more. "And, well..." _Fuck it._ _Practice what you preach, Nora._ "Ren, I never got the opportunity to say, I-"

"Three-"

Then, without warning, a Beowolf far larger than all of the others, an Alpha, crashed through the ranks, effortlessly tossing its brethren out of the way. It reached the front of the pack in an instant, and batted Nora backwards, throwing her into Ren and Yang. Nora yelped in surprise, and Ren shouted out in pain as he landed directly on his injured shoulder. Yang's unconscious body dropped back into the melting snow, but still she didn't so much as stir.

The Alpha Beowolf roared in triumph and strode towards its fallen prey, dark fur bristling.

Nora climbed back to her feet, using Magnhild to partially support her weight. Her aura crackled and faded. Still, she hoisted her weapon with shaking arms. "Uh… Good doggie?" she tried nervously.

The Grimm pounced.

And while it was still in midair barreling towards her – both of its back legs exploded into tattered shreds of bone and dangling muscle. It screeched in agony and landed face down in the snow, sliding for a few short feet, but falling well short of the cornered hunters.

"Oh," Nora said, staring at the downed Grimm in shock. "...Break its legs... Why didn't I think of that?"

Then three new figures rushed into view, placing themselves between her and the monsters.

The barrel of Dove Bronzewing's weapon was still smoking, even as he began to hack into the mindless crowd. He alternated between quick swings and sudden unexpected burst of fire from his gun-sword, laying out Grimm both up close and at a distance simultaneously.

Russel Thrush stood beside him. He cycled the dust cylinders in one of his daggers, and then, with a practiced flick of his wrist, he hurled a wave of brilliant orange fire into the nearest group of Beowolves, forcing them to either retreat or burn alive in the flames.

And the final newcomer, Sky Lark, strolled almost lazily over to the Alpha Beowolf – which Nora only then noticed was still snarling and trying to crawl toward her on its two remaining front limbs – and brought his halberd down directly between its eyes, spattering the snow with gray matter.

"So," Sky said cheerfully, turning around to look down at Nora. "Remind me. What was it that you said before about _your team_ needing to come rescue _our team_?"

* * *

"I need... Crocea Mors," Jaune said aloud. _But why? Why did he need it...?_ The reason continued to elude him. He glanced ahead, scanning the snow with his newly improved sight. Where had he dropped Crocea Mors exactly? He needed it in order to kill... uh... to kill... What was he meant to kill again...?

His thoughts were fluttering around inside his head like flies. Whenever he thought he'd finally caught one, _something_ would then snatch it away from him in turn.

 _ **Keep going. Everything will be clear in a moment...**_

Jaune was thankful that he still had the strange voice to guide him. His own thoughts were currently slipping out of his head as though it were a sieve, but his new companion always seemed to know exactly what do. So, Jaune obeyed, looking straight ahead as he continued walking.

Almost immediately, he paused.

He had to blink a few times to make certain he wasn't hallucinating. There were Grimm standing all around him on the slope.

They were Beowolves mostly, dozens of them, and the enormous Nevermore was up ahead as well. They were all standing perfectly still in place, like statues, watching him with countless sets of glowing red eyes. They looked almost... expectant.

Jaune found it odd that he hadn't recognized the threat sooner. _He needed his sword_. Ah... _That_ was what he had been looking for.

 _ **The creatures of Grimm won't harm you.  
**_

Of course, the Grimm weren't a threat. It had been silly of him to think so. Everything that the voice explained to him was so obvious... in hindsight. Ah. But, again, somehow he had forgotten what it was he was trying to find... He'd had it only a moment ago... But it was like he was trying to carry water around in his bare hands...

And then he spotted it, standing in the epicenter of all of the other Grimm - the Afterthought. He wasn't surprised to find it smiling, displaying its sharp teeth.

 _ **Approach.** _

"No..." Jaune said hesitantly. "I'm... I know that I'm supposed to kill that one... It's our mission."

 _ **No. You have a new mission.**_ The voice said, more sternly now. _ **Approach. It will help you to understand.  
**_

Again Jaune gave in and obeyed. He began moving closer.

Until a curious Beowolf ambled over and blocked his path, sniffing at him. Jaune only vaguely remembered that he was supposed to fear these creatures. The feeling wouldn't come, though. He tried to step around it to one side, but it stepped in front of him again, as though studying him. His vision flashed red again. Anger. He made to kill the creature with his bare hands - and found that he couldn't. His arms wouldn't move.

 ** _You can't harm one of your like._**

"But-"

 ** _Simply tell it to move. Grimm can always recognize their masters. They are obedient.  
_**

" _Move_ ," Jaune ordered.

The Beowolf's eyes widened, and it hastened to jump out of his way. And then, as Jaune continued to walk, each and every one of the Grimm that he passed did the same, parting devotedly to allow him passage. Even the Nevermore, which so far had only been watching him with one enormous eye, bowed its head low. It felt pleasant to be acknowledged. Eventually, Jaune wound up at the center of the pack, standing before the Afterthought.

Right as Jaune reached the creature, the tip of his boot tapped against something solid. Curious, he bent low, and was pleased to discover Crocea Mors buried in the snow at his feet. How lucky. He hoisted it and examined the wet, gleaming metal. Then, for a single instant, as he looked at his reflection on the flat of the blade, Jaune felt as though he had managed to latch on to a coherent thought. " _What did you do to me?_ he asked the Afterthought, furious and terrified.

 _ **Stow the weapon.**_

But, he fought too hard to keep hold of the thought, and again it slipped away from him. " _And, what do you want me to do?_ " he asked, now merely curious.

The Afterthought lifted its clawed right hand, holding it palm outwards to Jaune. The knight waited, perplexed.

And then, after a moment, something began to scratch and wriggle its way out from beneath the creature's skin.

It was, Jaune saw, a tiny black spider with familiar red, compound eyes; almost certainly a creature of Grimm. As he watched, the insect turned in place a few times, then traveled up along the Afterthought's arm on its spindly legs, disappearing behind its back, before circling around its neck and crawling up and onto its face.

 ** _This... is a Weaver. It makes its way inside humans. Crawls into even the tiniest cuts.  
_**

Jaune brought up his hand and ran it along the scar on his face. "So, that's... what _you_ are then?" he asked the voice. "A bug? Inside my head?" He wondered why that didn't make him feel... anything, really. He had never liked spiders.

 _ **Yes,**_ the voice replied. _ **  
**_

"I didn't know there were Grimm insects," Jaune continued emotionlessly. "What is it that you do?"

 _ **We hollow out humans. We create Afterthoughts. Your transition is nearly complete. Those with the light always last a little longer...**_

"Light? Do you mean my aura?" Jaune had a lot of it. That was what Pyrrha had said to him... a very long time ago. "So, I... change-" Jaune looked to the Afterthought. It had that black skin. Red eyes. Those horrible teeth. Bone armor. Bone claws. Had it really been a human being once...? "Then what am I meant to do...?" He felt so directionless. It was becoming almost unbearable, not having a goal.

The voice chuckled. _ **Wait for my eggs to hatch.**_

All at once, the Afterthought's pitch black skin began to writhe and squirm, as though it were made of liquid beneath the surface. More of the spiders, Weavers, began to crawl out from its mouth, over its teeth and tongue, over its smile. They fell and hung from his lips from thin, shadowy threads.

Deep inside of Jaune, a faint voice that sounded suspiciously like his own was screaming. If only he could figure out why.

 _ **Each will be a new Afterthought. More Grimm. More Grimm.  
**_


	13. Pleasantries

Arc 1, Chapter 13

Pleasantries

* * *

Weiss slid Myrtenaster free from the Beowolf corpse. Glistening, black blood ran down the handle and onto her knuckles.

Again, she glanced over to see how her companion was faring. Again, it served only to frustrate her.

Pyrrha hurdled one of the Grimm, dragging her blade across its eyes behind her as she went. She landed, effortlessly slammed a second Beowolf out of her way with Akoúo, her shield - while simultaneously transforming Miló, her blade, into its javelin form. She cocked back and threw it overhand. It exploded outward, whistling through the air, and easily found its intended target, an unlucky third Beowolf. The creature was left pinned to a large boulder, speared directly through the forehead. She turned back around and, with another swift blow from her shield, she caved in the first Beowolf's head while it thrashed about in blind agony.

Then she lifted her arm, and the air around her began to hum gently as she focused her semblance. Her weapon pulled itself free from the stone in which it was embedded and began to return to her, soaring towards her outstretched hand. While it was still traveling, the spear hit and tore clean through a fourth Beowolf - and Pyrrha herself felled a fifth with her shield, looking away and then back again just in time to catch her spear out of the air. It landed comfortably in her palm.

Five Beowolves slain - in maybe twice as many seconds.

Not a single strand of Pyrrha's hair had slipped out of place. There wasn't so much as a bead of sweat on her skin. She inhaled. Exhaled. Calm. And then continued fighting - as though she hadn't just casually performed a feat that would awe most aspiring huntsmen and huntresses. As though she really was the _invincible girl_.

Weiss gritted her teeth and turned away again. A Beowolf leapt at her. She raised a glyph and the Grimm promptly slammed against it, shattering its own bones, and fell to the ground. She had performed that particular maneuver countless times. And she had always thought it an impressive enough display.

Now? It felt simplistic and clumsy. All brute force, and no finesse. Any rank amateur could have used a glyph as a shield, had they possessed her semblance.

Weiss had always been something of a perfectionist. She had spent countless hours alone, locked in various training rooms, making sure her every motion - every individual strike delivered, every single measured step taken - was absolutely flawless… And yet, watching Pyrrha flow through the creatures of Grimm like a force of nature made her realize that she _could_ have worked even harder. She c _ould_ have put in that extra bit of work every night. Expended that extra ounce of effort. Even on those nights when she had been left so exhausted that she had crawled back to her bed on her hands and knees, she had still been capable of more...

As much as she loathed to admit it, Weiss had recently begun to understand that there was no such thing as flawless – not in daily life, and not on the battlefield. There was no such thing as perfection.

But, Pyrrha Nikos, the four time champion of the Mistral regional tournament, was _damn_ close.

Weiss directed all of her frustration towards another Beowolf, spearing this one through the chest.

There were certainly enough of the creatures to share...

The two huntresses in training were currently attempting to re-scale the mountain heights, but they were making excruciatingly slow progress, stalled by an army of Beowolves that now seemed to be crawling all over the rocky mountainside. It was disturbing to think that this many of the monsters could have simply appeared in the dead of night, as though from nowhere. Only the previous evening, there hadn't been a single Grimm to be seen for miles in any given direction.

But this was more than a pack. This was an infestation. An army. In all likelihood something terrible was happening. Something terrible always seemed to be happening, for whatever reason. Weiss sighed. As if this morning hadn't already been difficult enough...

Behind her, Pyrrha shifted Miló into its rifle mode, dropped to one knee, and took aim. Several sharp cracks followed, each one accompanied by a howl of anguish.

Weiss had actually been approaching one of the creatures - when its head exploded, forcing her to skip backwards out of the splash zone. "I had that one!" she declared indignantly. "Be careful where you're aiming!" When she received no answer, she turned back to her fellow huntress. "Pyrrha...?"

But Pyrrha didn't seem to hear. Each time she fired her weapon, she was already maneuvering to line up the next shot, entirely certain that the previous would land. On several occasions, a single expertly timed round dropped two or three of the charging Grimm at once. And all the while, Pyrrha's face remained frozen in a mask of silent concentration. Soon, the Beowolf corpses were piling up around her more quickly than the bodies could disappear...

Weiss stopped in place, not bothering to conceal her astonishment. Her weapon fell listlessly to her side. "Unbelievable..." Here she was, fighting for her life against dangerous monsters, soulless abominations - while Pyrrha Nikos was stepping on bugs.

It was the single most marvelous and disheartening thing she had ever seen.

But, still, she wasn't about to simply stand around and allow someone else do all of the work. Her pride - damaged though it was - would never allow for that. So, she dropped to one knee and plunged her sword into the ground, conjuring a glyph beneath her feet. This one, however, bore a clock face.

The hands immediately began to rotate wildly - whirring like giant fan blades - and at the same moment, all of the Grimm around her seemed to slow...

* * *

It took a long while, but eventually they managed to eliminate all of the nearby Beowolves.

Weiss bent over double, gasping for breath. An enormous black fog of disintegrated Grimm hung thick in the air above them. More of the monsters would almost certainly be arriving soon. Several times already, she and Pyrrha had thought themselves in the clear, only for yet more Beowolves to descend on their position. However, for the moment, it seemed as though they could rest and regain some of their strength... or, that was what Weiss had intended.

Pyrrha apparently had other plans. The most recent bout of combat had only just ended, but already she was traveling uphill along the path again. She hadn't bothered to spare Weiss so much as a backwards glance. She was much too focused on looking ahead.

"She doesn't even seem tired," Weiss muttered in disbelief. Then she snarled, forced her sore legs into motion, and followed.

Their planned destination was that same hill where they had found their target the evening before, near the summit. That was the last place that they had seen their friends and teammates, so obviously that would be the place Jaune would be headed. Or, at least, that was the conclusion Pyrrha had arrived at when she awoke to find him missing in action. Then she had started the journey to find her leader... without bothering to ask for Weiss's opinion on the matter.

So now, Weiss was stuck ignoring the painful stitch in her side, and trying not to lag too far behind.

She pulled the collar of her – still damp – jacket up a bit higher, making certain the bruises on her neck remained hidden from view. She hadn't yet mentioned what had happened with Jaune - and to be perfectly honest, she wasn't sure why she was staying quiet. What reason was there for her to hide what had occurred? Perhaps she didn't want to worry Pyrrha. Perhaps she didn't want to blindly condemn Jaune before he had the opportunity to explain his actions.

Or perhaps it was merely routine. She knew very well that the marks on her throat would disappear by the end of the day. The little bruises always did. You hid them until then, so no one could see.

And then, suddenly, Weiss was furious again. A child again. She did her best to swallow those feelings. Tried hard to think about nearly anything else.

She took a deep breath, raised her shoulders and stood up a bit straighter. She decided that she was going to be having a few words with a certain Jaune Arc. His strange, unwarranted aggression had been completely unacceptable. Weiss understood that they had never exactly gotten along, that she had maybe treated him... a tad harshly at first. However, she also felt that he shared a portion of the blame for that. He had stubbornly refused to take 'no' for an answer, after all.

Yet, despite all of that... romantic unpleasantness, she had recently begun to think of Jaune as... well, not a friend precisely, but a cordial acquaintance. And she had never known him to behave... _like that_. She would listen to his justifications, and then she would decide what to do about all of this accordingly...

"I see someone ahead!" Pyrrha called out, drawing Weiss's attention.

Weiss squinted, following her fellow huntress's gaze. "Is it… Jaune?" she asked a touch hesitantly.

But, again, Pyrrha had already taken off without her, treading through the melting snow. Weiss sighed and then followed after her. A bit of rudeness could be forgiven. The poor girl had lost track of her - almost comically inept - partner again. Who knew what sort of trouble he would find his way into without a guardian...

When they drew closer to the figure, however, they discovered that it was... Cardin. Pyrrha deflated visibly.

Cardin had his mace at the ready in his hand. "Oh," he muttered as they reached him. "It's only you two." He seemed disappointed, as though he would have preferred to meet with a creature of Grimm instead.

It was a sentiment that Weiss shared.

She was about to say as much - when she noticed that her leader was slung over Cardin's shoulder. "Ruby?" she gasped, quickly moving in closer to check on her. "Is she alright? What happened?"

Cardin obliged her by tossing the sleeping girl into her arms. "She isn't hurt," he grunted. "Asleep. Maybe you'll have better luck waking her up than we did."

Weiss put an ear up to Ruby's mouth and listened carefully to make sure she was breathing. Then she sighed with relief. "Don't scare me like that," she warned her sleeping partner, rapping her knuckles hard against the girl's forehead. "You dolt." But she couldn't help but smile.

"This is normal for her then?" Cardin asked.

"Yes, unfortunately," Weiss replied. She took a thumb and forefinger, and clamped her leader's nose shut. "Give it a second..."

A moment later, Ruby began to snort and splutter, until her eyes popped open in panic. She swatted Weiss's hand off of her face and sucked down a few desperate breaths. "What's happening!?" she cried, frantically looking around at everyone. "Sit rep!?"

"You overslept," Weiss replied dryly.

"Oh." Ruby nodded as though that explained everything. "Sorry about that, Weiss... And, you can put me down now."

Weiss - who was still carrying her leader in her arms - considered this for a moment. Then she abruptly dropped the tiny huntress into the snow.

Cardin had watched the entire exchange impassively. "So, you're all... actually kind of stupid, huh?"

Weiss opened her mouth to retort, but Pyrrha hurriedly stepped between her and Cardin. "Have you seen Jaune?" she demanded of him impatiently. She had waited quietly while they determined that Ruby was alright, but it was obvious that all of this casual conversation - this inaction - was torturing her. She wanted to keep moving.

" _Really?_ " Cardin chuckled. "You guys managed to misplace _both_ of your team leaders?"

Pyrrha clenched her fists. " _Have you seen him?_ " she repeated.

Cardin stopped grinning. For an instant, it looked as though he might say something argumentative - but, then he appeared to think better of it. Instead, he shrugged and answered her question. "No. I haven't seen him."

Pyrrha swore angrily. As far as Weiss was aware, that was... a first.

Cardin quirked an eyebrow in surprise. "Watch your language, young lady. If your sponsors hear about this, they might take your picture off of those cereal boxes."

"You think this is _funny_?" Pyrrha snapped back. And this time, she actually drew her weapons. The motion was so quick that Weiss almost missed it.

Cardin eyed the cold metal contemplatively. After a few moments, he brought his hands up in mock surrender. "I think," he said, measuring his words, "that Arc is competent enough – just barely, mind you – to keep himself alive until we can rescue him. Now, if you'll put that away... I will help you look for your boyfriend."

Weiss thought back to what she had just seen Pyrrha do to all of those Beowolves. She decided that Cardin had just made a remarkably intelligent decision.

Very slowly, Pyrrha nodded and then stowed her weapons. "Right," she said quietly. "Let's keep looking." Then she turned and began to walk off. Once again, she hardly seemed concerned with whether or not anyone was actually following along behind her.

There was a long moment of uncomfortable silence, as the group watched her go.

"Jaune is missing again?" Ruby asked eventually.

"He is," Weiss replied. She tugged her jacket collar up.

"Wait... _Again?_ " Cardin nearly performed a double take. "As in, more than once? In the _two_ days that we've been out here? Wow. How does Arc manage not drown in his cereal in the morning?" Then, shaking his head and muttering, he started after Pyrrha. "I almost feel sorry for all of you..."

Ruby jumped back up to her feet, and brushed the snow off of her clothes. "Hey, Cardin, so... where is the rest of _your_ team anyway...?"

* * *

"Alright," Sky said evenly. "How bad are the injuries?"

"Oh, uh..." Nora replied, still somewhat in shock. As it turned out, realizing that you were alive only moments after resigning yourself to a gruesome death was a somewhat disorienting experience. Her pulse was still pounding in her ears. She managed to turn and look to her two injured friends. "Well, there's Ren's shoulder-"

"I don't care about him," Sky said dismissively. He gestured to Yang's prone form. "How is she?"

"We haven't had the chance to check on her," Ren grunted.

Sky immediately strolled past the members of team JNPR to the unconscious girl. "Well, she doesn't look good..." He nudged Yang with his boot, rolling her over onto her back. The front of her shirt was torn nearly in half, starting at the collar. "Ah... Maybe, I should rephrase that," he mused. Then he bent down, lifted up Yang's arm, and examined it. It was covered in blood from shoulder to wrist. "Looks like she was... bitten. Do you guys have any bandages?"

 _Wow. Yang's boobs really are enormous..._ "Uh... Yeah. Bandages." Nora looked around stupidly, but found that, as per usual, Ren was way ahead of her. He was already rummaging through one of their packs, throwing aside any unneeded gear. He found the medical kit and tossed it to Sky without a word.

"These bite marks are... all the way around her upper arm?" Sky blinked in confusion. "Did she... stick her arm down a Beowolf's throat?" he asked in amazement. "She's lucky it's even still attached at all." He soaked a cloth in disinfectant and started to clean the injury, muttering. " _Punches a Beowolf from the freaking inside_..."

Meanwhile, Russel and Dove had taken up Nora's previous position, forcing back the excitable tide of Grimm at the bottleneck.

Both of their combat skills _had_ improved significantly, Nora noticed. The members of team CRDL were keeping the creatures from drawing in too near, and simultaneously covering for each others' blind spots. And though she was watching them closely, she couldn't quite figure out what it was that Russel was doing with his daggers... He was nicking Beowolves with only glancing blows, leaving them with only the shallowest cuts, but still the creatures would then erupt into flames, or collapse to the ground and convulse in a storm of electricity. It was some sort of technique using dust, Nora assumed...

Ren let out a pained groan - and that immediately stole her attention away from the fighting. Her partner was trying to remove his jacket. The sleeve was already soaked through with blood, pasted down against his skin. Apparently, he had reopened his own injury when the Alpha Beowolf had thrown them all aside.

Nora bounced over to him as quickly as she could. "Ren, let me help," she said hurriedly, easing the jacket off of his shoulders. "I can fix this again... I mean, probably..." She wiped some of his warm blood off of her hands. Ren looked awfully pale. Nora would have been tremendously worried, were it not for the smile he wore.

"It would seem like we made it," Ren sighed. He leaned himself back against the boulder behind him, and closed his eyes.

Nora crawled in close and hugged him as gently as she could. "Yeah. We made it."

"For now," Sky added, ruining the pleasant moment. He walked over and dropped the med kit into Nora's lap. "Her arm is fine now, and there were no other cuts or bruises that needed attention. She'll recover. Now... quit it with the cuddling, and re-wrap your partner's bandages before he bleeds out."

"Right," Nora said, quickly moving to do just that. "And... uh..." She gritted her teeth. "Thank you."

Sky paused in place when he heard the words, slowly breaking into a grin. "For what?" he asked her innocently.

"For saving our lives."

"And...?" He waited expectantly.

"And... sorry. About before. For... making fun of your team." She turned her head so he wouldn't see how red she was. "For saying we would have to rescue you."

"Apology accepted." Sky looked like perhaps he was enjoying the situation a bit too much. He was smiling like this was all some sort of game - and he was winning.

Still cheerful, he turned around, scooped Yang up off of the ground, and then set her down beside Ren and Nora. "Does this one have a jacket? She's shivering." He placed the back of his hand against her neck. "Her skin is freezing. How did she even survive the night dressed like this?"

Nora blinked a few times at that.

Yang's aura was depleted - meaning her semblance wasn't active. She had never before seen Yang complain about the temperature, so she had almost forgotten that the cold could affect her... under certain circumstances. Nora quickly but carefully shifted Yang back into her sleeping bag and threw a blanket over her. Then she went back to working on Ren's shoulder. The bandages weren't done... strictly by the book, but she tried her best and did manage to stem the bleeding.

She even tied a little bow on top.

It was beginning to seem like everything might turn out okay...

Despite how tired she felt, Nora found that she wanted to dance around and shout in joy and make snow angels in the slush. It was probably a mixture of relief and adrenaline. Instead, she kept herself pressed tight against Ren while he rested. The rise and fall of his chest was comforting. It meant he was still alive.

That they were both still alive.

But still, a pack of Beowolves was howling and fighting and dying only a short distance away. The crack of gunfire and the sounds of metal striking against bone was ringing out. Every time Nora inhaled, she could smell cooked flesh and burnt fur. They wouldn't necessarily be alive for much longer.

Sky, however, appeared perfectly at ease. He sat on top of a large rock, curiously flipping through the pages of a black book he had found near Yang's sleeping bag, and chewing on a ration bar he had stolen from Ren's pack. Occasionally he would glance up at his teammates - but only so he could cheer them on sarcastically.

They didn't seem to appreciate that.

"Hey, Sky?" Russel called out after one such comment, ducking under a Beowolf's claws. "Are you planning on, maybe, helping us at any point?"

"You look like you've got it handled," Sky replied. He seemed bored.

Russel wasn't amused. " _Bite me._ "

Sky looked out at the crowd of snarling Beowolves. "I think there's already a line..."

Dove drove his sword hilt-deep into a Grimm and then fired a several rounds directly into its chest cavity, causing its body to twitch and jerk in interesting ways. "You really don't plan on doing _anything_ , Sky?" he asked, sounding annoyed and amused in equal measure. "Why doesn't that surprise me?"

"I mean, I was the one who killed the Alpha Beowolf."

"After _I_ had already crippled it," Dove replied.

Sky shrugged. "But you didn't kill it, did you?"

"I'm gonna come over there and kill you in a second."

"Wouldn't that be a neat trick," Sky chuckled. Then he hopped back up to his feet and looked to Nora. "Be ready to fight again soon," he advised her. "You'll need to switch back in when someone starts to get tired. It seems like we're gonna be at this for a while. There's no sense in exhausting everyone at the same time."

Nora rested her hand on Magnhild's hilt. "Do you have any idea where all these Grimm are coming from?" she asked.

"Not a clue," Sky replied. "We hadn't seen so much as an Ursa the entire time we were out here. Then this morning we wake up and start climbing the mountain to reach your coordinates - and suddenly we're wading through the fucking things. You want my opinion? I suggest that you call for our ride home, and then we can all wait it out right here until they arrive. I would do it myself, but if Cardin found out that I was the one who made the call early, I would never hear the end of it."

Nora considered that. "You want us to leave... without completing the mission?"

The thought hadn't even occurred to her. Ozpin had given each of them a small homing beacon, which they could activate at any time. It would alert the pilots who dropped them off, signal that they were ready to be evacuated. But it was only meant to be used once they had completed their main objective, or if they were in extreme danger...

"I can't imagine Ozpin would fault us." Sky said. "You and your friends just nearly died, after all." He started walking towards his teammates, perhaps finally ready to assist them. But after a moment, he paused, and looked back to her. "Oh, and when we get back to Beacon, make sure to tell Yang that she owes me one."

Nora opened her mouth, realized that she didn't have a reply, and then closed it again.

Sky hadn't bothered to wait for an answer anyway. Instead, he continued on towards his teammates, grinning and whistling as he readied his halberd.


	14. Scar Tissue

Arc 1, Chapter 14

Scar Tissue

* * *

Jaune could sense them coming long before he could actually see them. Even at this distance, he could hear their hushed voices, the sound of their boots sloshing through the snow and mud. With his new ears, they could never even have hoped to approach him unnoticed.

It was the huntsmen and huntresses.

His former allies.

He strolled over to the crest of the hill, paying no mind to the Beowolves that moved aside to allow him passage, and looked down the incline. He saw four individuals moving towards him, still a distance away. He couldn't put names to their faces. Three girls. One boy. All of them carried weapons. None of them could see him yet.

The voice in his head spoke. **_Destroy them._**

Jaune nodded. "Yes."

All the pieces had finally fallen into place. Everything was clear. He had an objective again. He had a _purpose_ again.

Jaune turned around and started back through the crowd of Beowolves - heading towards the Nevermore.

The Afterthought followed along behind him, stooped slightly, as silent as ever. It shadowed him, content to wait and see what he would do. Apparently, that meant that this horde of Grimm was now Jaune's to do with as he saw fit. For some reason, that felt perfectly appropriate to him.

He stopped directly in front of the Nevermore and looked up at it, and the tremendous Grimm looked back down at him in turn. It could have destroyed him with little enough effort, but he could somehow _feel_ that it wouldn't. They had a mutual understanding. When Jaune gestured and made his intention clear, the Nevermore obeyed him. It screeched so loudly that the ground rumbled beneath their feet, and then it took to the air, whipping up a blinding whirlwind of ice and snow.

For some time now, Jaune had been fully aware of the other huntress hiding up in the cliffs above them. This one was more careful then the others by far. She had carefully remained out of his sight, kept downwind so he wouldn't be able to smell her. The only reason he had wound up noticing her at all was because she had backed away to speak into her scroll for a brief moment, allowing him to hear her whispering. Doubtless, she was an extremely capable hunter.

Fortunately, the Nevermore he had just directed to her hiding place could easily deal with a lone huntress, no matter her skill. He wondered how long she would be able to run.

Up above, the first volley of enormous feathers struck the cliffs.

Now satisfied that he wouldn't be attacked from behind, Jaune returned his attention to the scores of Beowolves surrounding him. They all sat, waiting patiently for commands. They belonged to him, and they knew it. "As for the rest of you," he declared, "kill the hunters." Then he watched to see if they would listen. He still wasn't certain whether Beowolves could actually understand human language...

Regardless, they seemed to catch his meaning. They knew that they had been given leave to run wild.

The entire pack took off immediately, howling, crashing over the edge of the slope and descending on the hunters in one enormous, black wave. It was about the least graceful charge Jaune had ever seen, but, if nothing else, it would make for an intimidating display of force. It would scare the hunters.

The familiar sounds of combat began to ring out from downhill, as the Beowolves reached the other hunters. Explosions detonated, dust rounds whizzed through the air, steel hacked through flesh and bone. Jaune closed his eyes, listening, basking in the sheer violent energy of the moment. He tested his body; flexed his muscles, rolled his shoulders, bounced back and forth from foot to foot, took a few long, deep breaths. He had never felt so... _powerful._

It was inconceivable that anyone could stop him now.

He thought back to his old life. It came to him only in little bits and pieces now. He had cheated his way into Beacon. He had been so weak that he struggled to even survive the initiation, passing only because someone skilled had taken pity on him and become his partner. He had been blackmailed by a team of his fellow hunters, stuffed into lockers, mocked and ridiculed. He had been harshly and repeatedly rejected by a girl that he had actually cared for. He had been absolutely humiliated in combat class after combat class after combat class, earning not a single _fucking_ win...

His life had beaten him down again and again. And he had always grinned and laughed along as it happened, because he had been too pathetic to do anything else. The memories were bile in his mouth. But now, everything was different. He would tear Beacon to the ground. He would track down and eliminate every last hunter on Remnant.

Every last human.

The voice in his head practically purred.

Jaune broke from his reverie and glanced at the Afterthought, only just now remembering that it was still standing behind him. It seemed... pleased, almost pompous behind its bone mask, though Jaune wasn't certain how he could tell. There was something distinctly unpleasant about the way the creature was studying him.

"What are you still doing here?" he asked it.

The Afterthought cocked its head to one side, signalling its confusion.

"I just commanded all of the Grimm to kill." Jaune stated. He took a step forward, putting himself nearly face to face with the creature. "And that," he continued, "includes you."

The Afterthought's eyes widened and it rocked backwards on its heels as though he had struck it full in the face. For the first time, it stopped smiling.

Jaune thought back to what the... bug inside of his head had told him earlier. _Grimm can always recognize their masters. They are obedient._ Jaune's aura pulsed, sliding once across his skin and then fading away. It was as black as the void now, and it no longer hummed so much as roared. "You listen to me now," he stated emphatically. "Do you understand? Did you think just because you beat me - _made_ _me_ \- that you would remain in charge?" He grinned, baring his teeth. "Kneel."

And as Jaune knew it would, the Afterthought dropped to its hands and knees in the mud.

"Good." Jaune said quietly. That was settled then. He repeated his earlier command. "Kill the hunters."

The Afterthought looked back up at him. There was an unmistakable flash of defiance behind its crimson eyes - but it only burned for an instant. The creature's body slumped in defeat, and then it obeyed, turning around and scurrying off downhill, towards the currently battling hunters and Beowolves.

Jaune watched it go with no small amount satisfaction. Then he began to follow after it at a walking pace. He didn't want to miss the bloodshed.

The fight would be over quickly, he expected. None of the huntsmen and huntresses on the mountain could possibly stand up against the Afterthought for very long. It was, he knew from experience, a disturbingly capable fighter despite its size. In his previous life it had effortlessly trounced him in hand-to-hand combat. It was faster and more powerful than an average human being, and it could think, predict, familiarize itself with a hunter's weapons and fighting style. A Grimm with a human level of intelligence was a very dangerous thing.

As Jaune drew closer, he looked to the four hunters further down the slope, furiously slashing their way through his Beowolves. The smallest of the four hunters wielded an enormous steel scythe. The one beside her carried a rapier. Another, a large male, swung a mace that seemed to explode upon contact with its targets. The last member fought with a sword and a golden shield. They all felt vaguely familiar to Jaune... but he couldn't recall anything more concrete than that.

For a few teenagers surrounded by monsters, they were faring... remarkably well.

At least, that was, until the Afterthought reached them. It moved across the battlefield like a streak of black lightning, nimbly weaving between Beowolves, before slipping into the pocket of open space that the hunters had made for themselves. None of the the humans had time to react. The Afterthought caught the red-haired huntress with the tiara by her jacket and forcefully flung her away from the others, right into the crowd of Beowolves.

The other hunters turned and cried out after their companion, but the sea of Grimm quickly closed back in and left them with no way to follow safely.

The huntress landed and rolled to her feet, but the Afterthought was already on her again, keeping her off balance with a series of vicious swipes. To Jaune's immense surprise, she avoided or parried every one of them, and then struck back with her sword, forcing the Afterthought to retreat a short distance. For a long moment, the two combatants paused to take measure of one another, and the surrounding Beowolves paused along with them, uncertain as to whether or not they should involve themselves in the fight. The Afterthought shot them a look, and the Grimm began to back away.

And taking advantage of that momentary distraction, the huntress attacked.

She shifted her weapon into a rifle and fired several quick shots, even as she advanced. The Afterthought ducked aside to avoid the dust rounds and righted itself just in time to find the huntress at its throat, blade readied. The Afterthought leaned backwards and avoided the weapon by a hair's breadth. Then it pressed forward once again, raining heavy blows down on the huntress's shield with a clawed hand, sending up sparks as it scraped grooves across the metal.

The fight developed into a back and forth blur of motion as both the huntress and the creature of Grimm exchanged blows. Neither landed a hit, but each and every missed strike looked as though it would have been decidedly fatal. Blades and claws skimmed the air inches from bare skin.

It was impossible to tell which of them held the advantage.

Jaune followed the action for only a few more seconds before he had to turn away. A sort of desperate excitement was boiling up inside him, fueled by the violent display. It was like an incessant, desperate thirst, but _more_. It had taken him with alarming suddenness, and it needed to be satiated or he was sure he'd go insane.

He needed to tear one of the humans to pieces himself.

 _ **So do it**_ , the voice in his head urged.

And that was all it took.

Jaune exploded into motion, running towards the other three hunters. Even over the uproar of the battlefield, he could pick out their individual heartbeats. Crimson crept in at the edges of his vision. He could hear himself laughing.

The Beowolves must have _felt_ him coming because before he even reached them, they were already parting, leaving an open path for him.

He went after the largest of the hunters first, the male. If size was any indication, this one would give him the sort of confrontation that he was yearning for. He skipped between the two females before either of them could notice him and then slammed into the male from behind, lifting him up and off of his feet. They landed together in a heap in the snow, but Jaune was quicker to recover. He grabbed his newfound prey by the ankle and began to drag him further away, where they wouldn't be interrupted.

The hunter growled and lifted his mace to strike - but paused when he saw who was hauling him.

"Arc...? What the hell are you doing?"

Jaune ignored the words and continued walking. His aura pulsed. Slick black. This time, however, the shadowy glow seemed to congeal all around him, clinging to his skin like plastic wrap smeared in grease. It had substance to it now. The next step of his transformation into an Afterthought perhaps...?

He gave the change all of the notice it deserved, absolutely none. He was much too focused on the flesh and blood hunter, who was now staring at him, shocked and disgusted. Jaune tightened his grip on the hunter's leg, spun, and hurled the large male through the air. He didn't land gracefully.

By the time Jaune reached him again, the hunter was still struggling back to his feet. Injured...? No. He seemed disoriented but unharmed. As Jaune stalked closer, the hunter took a swing at him with his mace, but it was clear that he hadn't really meant for it to connect. There was no real force behind it. For some reason, the hunter was hesitant to hurt him...

Jaune dodged out of the way with ease, stepped closer, and threw a light jab right into the bridge of the hunter's nose. The punch had been meant only to agitate, to make his prey _fight_ \- and it served its purpose splendidly.

The hunter stumbled backwards and brought a hand up to inspect his face. Then he snarled, muttered something that Jaune ignored, and brought his mace to bear again. This time, when he swung his weapon, he held nothing back. Jaune ducked under the attack, and felt the sheer force of it, as wind whipped through his hair. It was the kind of blow that would have taken a Beowolve's head off. And, from what Jaune had seen earlier, if the mace had connected, it also would have exploded.

He stepped in even closer.

Admittedly, Jaune had never been a skilled combatant, but that hardly mattered now. His new eyes could take in every little detail, and he could process it all in a single instant, so it felt to him as though his prey was moving in slow motion. Of course, it didn't hurt that this particular hunter didn't move very fast to begin with. But still, Jaune could perceive every little movement, every tell-tale muscle twitch. He could see exactly where the hunter was directing his attention, aiming each of his attacks. Form hardly mattered when he could tell exactly where and when every blow would land...

The hunter howled in frustration as Jaune avoided what must have been the dozenth strike in a row.

Now that he had grown accustomed to evading, Jaune stepped in close and slugged the hunter in the stomach. This time _he_ held nothing back.

Still, however, he was astonished when his punch elicited a loud metallic twang. The hunter hit the ground, gasping in pain, curled up in a ball, and didn't attempt to stand back up. He had been wearing a set of armor underneath his black mountain gear - and Jaune had dented the hardened metal... with his bare hand.

 _But, how?_

Confused, Jaune looked down at his balled fist - and found that the back of his hand was now covered by a thick layer of pale-white bone, much like a gauntlet. Pointed claws were forming on his fingers, slowly climbing the back of each pitch-black digit. _That_ would certainly be useful in a fight, he mused, studying them.

He would need to test his claws.

Jaune advanced on the injured hunter, readying his pointy new weapons, clicking them together in excitement. He wondered whether it would be better to slit the boy's throat, end his life in a single stroke, or to pick off several smaller bits and pieces to really explore what he could do... As he drew nearer and knelt beside the hunter, he found that he was still no closer to making up his mind. He leaned in close, intoxicated by the possiblities, practically salivating.

The hunter stopped his trembling all at once - and took a sudden swing at Jaune's head with his mace.

His injury had been a ruse.

And Jaune realized an instant too late that he had let his guard down. He could see the blow coming in agonizing slow motion, but he wouldn't be able to avoid it this time. It was much too close already. In a panic, he managed to bring up his hand in time to place it between the hunter's approaching weapon and his temple - for what little protection that would offer.

The head of the mace thumped against his palm.

It was not unlike being shot in the head with a cannonball, Jaune decided. His neck jerked to the side so sharply that he was certain his head had come free from his shoulders, and the explosion that followed was so loud that it ruptured both of his eardrums. It also must have thrown him a considerable distance, because he saw the ground and sky exchange places several times before he finally came crashing back down to earth.

He kept still while he waited for the inevitable agony. Ten long seconds passed. But it never arrived.

He climbed back to his feet, feeling only slightly unsteady, which was as a pleasant surprise. He had expected to be dead. The skin on his hand was burnt and still smoking. Something wet dripped from his fingers and fell to the ground. Blood. His blood. That was black now too. His ears were ringing, but somehow it seemed that he could still hear well enough. His neck ached something awful.

But, as far as he could tell, the damage wasn't life threatening. Clearly, his new body was... durable, even more so than he had expected.

If anything, taking that hit had only left him more excited.

So he continued with what he'd been doing. Jaune found the hunter still sitting exactly where he'd been. It was clear that the boy hadn't put any real thought into a follow-up attack. And why would he have? When you were as large and powerful as he was, the things you hit in the head probably didn't get back up very often. But Jaune had. The hunter watched him approach with unabashed awe, forgetting even to raise his mace in self-defense. Jaune swatted the weapon out of his hand anyway. There wasn't going to be a repeat of that surprise attack.

The hunter made to speak, perhaps to beg for mercy or to squeeze in some final words, but Jaune didn't let him begin. Moving from a forward stroll into a kick, he caught the hunter full in the face with his boot. The boy bit his own tongue as his head snapped back, and dropped flat in the snow, out cold.

Jaune felt that disabling his prey hadn't been nearly as satisfying as expected. It still felt like horrible pressure was building up behind his eyes.

 _ **You aren't finished yet.**_

That was true enough. Jaune grabbed a handful of the hunter's jacket and lifted his limp body up into the air. Then he brought up his other hand and spread his claws. He had arrived at the final destination; he could feel it, vibrating in his very bones. He ran his tongue over his teeth and found that they were now tipped with razor sharp points. That would be all the better to rend flesh and bone with.

 _ **He**_ wa _ **s**_ so _**hungry.**_

He pressed his claws to the huntsman's chest.

And something slammed into the small of his back - forcing him to take several clumsy steps forward, as his prey fell from his hand. He roared in frustration, spinning around to face whatever had come between him and the only thing in the world that mattered.

It was the red-haired huntress.

The Afterthought she had been fighting was a few steps behind her.

Lying on the ground. Still.

In one of the eye-holes of its bone mask, where there ought to have been a luminescent crimson eye, there was now only a gaping hollow. Viscous black slime was trickling out from the wound, pooling in the snow around the creature's head. The huntress shook a matching ichor off of her blade as she approached. Her golden shield - the object that had hit Jaune in the back - flew through the air and returned to her hand. She lowered herself into a combat stance, faced him.

Then she froze.

Her defiant expression slowly faltered. Uncertainty and fear took its place.

" _Jaune...?_ "

* * *

" _Weiss?"_ Ruby called, unable to keep the panic from creeping into her voice. "Can you use your dust yet?"

" _For the hundredth time_ ," Weiss replied angrily. " _I fell in a river._ _It. Still. Needs. To. Dry._ " She cycled Myrtenatster's chamber and pointed it at the nearest Beowolf. Exactly nothing happened. " _See!?_ "

"Don't yell at a superior officer! That's insubordination!" Ruby shot back. "And, I mean, it can't hurt to keep checking-" She took a single step backwards, trying to put a bit more space between her and the surrounding Beowolves - only to bump right into her partner's back. "- _given the circumstances_! So... um... how about now?"

"No, Ruby!" Weiss cried. A Beowolf charged her and she speared it through the neck. "And why do you still insist on using that _ridiculous_ military vernacular?"

"It sounds professional!" Ruby replied indignantly, as she swung her scythe in front of her in wild arcs, trying to catch as many Beowolf limbs with it as possible. "And you didn't even check your dust that time! What if it's dry now!?"

"It won't have dried in two seconds!" Weiss retorted.

"Not with that attitude, it won't have!"

"What does that even mean?!"

Ruby turned on her heels to face Weiss, flailing her arms in frustration. " _Just try to use your dust again! That's an order!_ "

Weiss spun around as well. " _I'm telling you, it won't work!_ " She waved her weapon to demonstrate-

-and a lance of flames erupted from it, passing right over Ruby's shoulder and catching an unfortunate Beowolf full in the face. The creature collapsed into a smouldering pyre of flesh and bone. Its advancing brethren paused momentarily to watch it burn.

Weiss looked down at her weapon. "Oh you have got to be-"

"We can talk about how right I was later," Ruby interrupted her. "Make with the dust, woman!"

With a dignified huff, Weiss flipped her sword over and plunged it into the ground at her feet.

There was a loud _crack_ and, instantaneously, the temperature of the surrounding air plummeted, from balmy and pleasant to utterly frigid. A moment later, an enormous chrysalis made entirely of solid ice burst from the ground, building itself up around the two huntresses. As the structure closed itself off, the outside world became eerily silent. Weiss let out a relieved sigh, and her breath caught in the air in front of her.

The blurred shadows of Grimm could still be seen throwing themselves against the crystal, trying to claw their way inside.

"Well... we're safe now," Ruby stated nervously. She rapped her knuckles against the ice that was shielding them, and found it to be as solid as it looked. "But we're also stuck in here. How do we find Pyrrha and Cardin again? And Jaune? And... everyone else?"

"Well, we can't do much of anything until we get rid of all of these Beowolves," Weiss stated. She took a deep breath and tried to ignore her partner so she could focus her thoughts. A glyph appeared beneath her feet. Slowly, it began to rotate and grow in size until it had encompassed the entire floor of their icy bastille.

Ruby frowned. "Weiss, do you have _any idea_ how long it's going to take us to kill this many Grimm?"

"Please... stop... talking," Weiss replied irritably, trying to maintain her concentration. What she was about to attempt could potentially end up killing the both of them if she made even a small mistake. Or worse still, it could demonstrate that she was capable of making small mistakes. "Cover your ears."

"My ears?"

The icy structure that Weiss had erected around them exploded outwards with a thunderous _bang_.

Minutes later, the - literal - dust still hadn't settled. A fine silvery mist hung in the air, partially obscuring Weiss's view of the battlefield around them, but still she remained in her combat stance, watching carefully.

Ruby, who had been knocked clean off of her feet by the blast, stood up on shaking legs. She pulled her fingers out of her ears and made popping sounds to make sure she hadn't lost her hearing. "Next time, a little more warning would be... oh... wow..." She trailed off as the smoke cleared.

The Beowolves that had been piled up against the ice fortress had been blown into unrecognizable bits.

When the crystal detonated, it had blasted the entire pack with thousands of tiny shards of ice. Frozen buckshot, essentially. Weiss had successfully shredded half-a-hundred Beowolves like they were tissue-paper. Not even those Beowolves that had been standing farthest away, at the perimeter of the crowd, had gotten away unscathed. A few were still moving, though they were mostly limping on ruined limbs or sprawled on the ground, flailing.

 _Let's see Pyrrha Nikos do that_ , she thought to herself, beaming.

"That was awesome!" Ruby cried throwing herself onto Weiss and hugging her around the shoulders. "Efficient _and_ outlandishly brutal. Do it again."

"I'd think I would... rather not," Weiss replied, swaying on her feet a little. Manipulating the force and direction of that attack had taken a lot out of her. More than she would have liked to admit. "Let's hurry and find-"

Before she could finish, there was a horrific screech that forced both huntresses to plant their hands over their ears.

Weiss recognized the sound immediately. _Of course!_ Of course they wouldn't be given even a few moments to stop and think. That would have been too simple. Weiss growled in annoyance - though it couldn't be heard over the Nevermore's cry. _This has been the longest three days of my life..._

When the screeching had ceased and there was comparative silence, Ruby glanced upward. "Uh... Weiss..." she began.

"Yes, Ruby, I'm well aware that there is a Nevermore above us. Thank you," Weiss replied tiredly, massaging the bridge of her nose with her free hand. She kept her eyes shut and pointedly refused to look up at the sky. Perhaps if she ignored the problem, it would simply go away on its own.

"Well, yes, there is a Nevermore above us," Ruby continued, "but there's something _else_ that you should probably know."

"What might that be?"

"It looks like Blake has... somehow... roped Gambol Shroud around the Nevermore's neck... and is desperately hanging on to it for her life."

"Ah."

"Sooo..." Ruby began hopefully, shouldering her rifle. "...Ice flower?"

Weiss sighed deeply. "Ice flower," she agreed.

* * *

Jaune and the huntress circled one another.

And all the while, she continued speaking to him - pleading from the looks of it - but it was wasted effort. He couldn't make out her words over the distracting sound of her blood pumping through her veins. He pictured how it would look spilled all over the ground. The desire was crushing him under its weight.

Every millisecond of non-action was sheer agony, but Jaune couldn't afford to move without thinking. Not this time. This huntress had killed the first Afterthought, his brother. The loss didn't sadden him in the least, but it was still cause for concern. Apparently this huntress was a threat that would require his full concentration. He would tread cautiously - despite the hunger still burning up his insides. It was better to stew in terrible anguish than to be dead.

At least, that was what he had to keep reminding himself.

Jaune stepped closer. The huntress mirrored the movement, though with noticeable trepidation. Her sword and shield were only half raised, and still she was trying to talk to him. She was hesitating, exactly like the last hunter had. Perhaps, he thought, he could use that fact to end this quickly.

And he _needed_ this fight to be over with quickly. _  
_

He leapt forward as quickly as he was able, every muscle in his body straining - and his claws met with the huntress's shield. It was practically unthinkable that she could have raised the hunk of metal up in time to intercept the blow, and yet somehow she had. He skipped away before she could strike back at him, still wary of her skill with the blade. However, it was hardly necessary. The huntress looked shocked by his attack, but she still hadn't even lifted her sword.

She looked down at her shield for a moment, as though she couldn't quite believe that she'd had to block with it, and when she looked up again, her expression had hardened. She closed her mouth and stopped trying to call his name. Instead, she shifted her weapon from a sword into a spear. She had decided to fight.

On the outside, Jaune remained still.

On the inside, his mind was howling. _He'd missed his only chance to finish the fight in one blow!_ His mouth was bone-dry. The waiting was becoming _unbearable_. He glanced over his shoulder at the large hunter he'd already defeated. At this rate, the fight against this new huntress would take much too long. If he simply turned and sprinted, he might make it back to the body before she could stop him. Might suffer injury, perhaps lose a limb. But he needed to feed _now_.

He _**nee**_ ded **_t_** o... _**He**_ neede ** _d t_** o... _**H**_ e nee ** _ded to_**... H ** _e_** ne ** _ed_** ed t _ **o**_...

The huntress attacked while his head was turned. It might even have worked, had he not heard the intake of breath before she began to move.

Jaune jerked his head back around in time to see her moving forward, driving her spear at him. It would reach him in about a second, which meant he had all the time in the world to think. There was more adrenaline than blood rushing through him now. Or, at least, the inky Grimm equivalents to adrenaline and blood.

He watched the steel tip of the spear draw nearer.

Where would the huntress be aiming? Somewhere immediately vital? His throat? His heart? His head? Perhaps his eyes? That was how she had finished the last Afterthought, in a single decisive blow. It was possible, however, that she knew he would be expecting her to aim for a clean kill, and that she might be trying to cripple one of his limbs, or to gut him; something that wouldn't end the fight immediately, but would leave him at a distinct disadvantage for the remainder of it.

The spear drew nearer.

It was coming in high. Certainly, it was intended to strike him somewhere on his upper body.

The spear drew nearer.

Higher still. She wasn't aiming for center mass - at his chest or stomach. His throat or head then.

The spear drew even nearer.

Head level. Slightly off center. That settled it. His eye. The huntress was trying for a repeat of her previous kill.

That was a poor decision. Jaune grinned and moved. He lunged forward, passing by the blade before it could pierce his face. He felt the head of the spear slip past his ear. Once inside of her defenses, he brought his arm up and drove his claws directly at the huntresses now exposed sternum-

 ** _YES._**

-and was absolutely _beamed_ in the side of the head with the length of her spear.

He stumbled backwards a few steps, dazed. Had she just... slapped him with the flat of her weapon...? Why? His ears were ringing again. He could still feel the almost electric buzz of aura, the huntress's aura, that had been flowing through the weapon... " _Ouch!_ " he whined. "What the hell was that for, Pyrrha?"

When he spoke, Pyrrha went stock still.

" _J...Jaune?_ " his partner inquired. Her voice cracked a little. "Are you _... you?_ "

He thought about that. "Um... Yes?" He wondered how he could be so uncertain about that.

Pyrrha let out a shuddering breath. Her eyes were wet, as though she might start to cry. Jaune had never seen her look so helpless. It wasn't right. He wanted to help somehow. She spoke to him again, slowly, quietly, as though he was an animal that might bolt. "What... happened? Can you tell me what happened to you?"

Jaune wasn't sure how to answer that. It was such a strange question. He tried to think - and remembered that Pyrrha had just hit him in the head. His recollection of the event was hazy and unclear, though he knew that it had happened only a few seconds ago. His own memories seemed to be fighting him tooth and nail on the way out. Pyrrha... had... tried to hurt him? That didn't make any sense. Why would Pyrrha hurt him? Why couldn't he remember...?

Lost, he glanced down at himself, at his empty hands.

Black. Claws.

Everything came crashing back down on him at once.

He remembered exactly where he was, and what he had been doing for the past several hours. He remembered what was currently mucking around inside his head. He remembered why Pyrrha was standing in front of him, on the verge of tears, with her spear pointed at his chest. He remembered why Cardin was lying in a crumpled heap a short distance away. He remembered why Blake, Ruby, and Weiss were currently fighting for their lives against the Grimm.

It was his fault.

The foreign voice in his head boomed. One word. _**NO.**_

And all of it started slipping away from him again.

Not quickly enough this time. Jaune lurched forward and grabbed Pyrrha by the wrist. She cried out, trying to pull away from him, until he spoke. " _Your aura,_ " he croaked. His voice sounded like he hadn't used it in a very long time. " _Let me feel your aura. I can't forget again... It's familiar._ "

To his immense relief, Pyrrha did as he asked without hesitation. She closed her eyes and her aura hummed, building up to a brilliant red glow. Jaune guided her hand to his chest and let the light wash over him.

It was every bit as familiar to him as his own. Pyrrha was, after all, the one who had used her aura to awaken his. He could still recognize the feeling of her _soul_ , even when he had forgotten nearly everything else...

 _I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee._

NO.

"Jaune," Pyrrha said, struggling to find the words. "...What's happening to you? Tell me... what I can do." She glanced down at his body, then back up almost immediately, struggling not to look sickened. She forced herself to look into his eyes. "How do I help you?"

Jaune drew Crocea Mors from where it had been resting, forgotten, at his hip, and gripped it in his clawed hand. "You can do three things for me," he said. "First, _do not_ let go of me." Pyrrha's hand pressed more firmly against his chest. Her aura flow remained steady. "Second," he continued, "I'm about to do something really, _really_ stupid. It's the only idea I have. Don't try to stop me."

Pyrrha nodded, clearly not quite understanding. "And... the third thing?"

"If this doesn't work, don't let me hurt anyone else... no matter how you have to do that."

At that Pyrrha looked stricken, but Jaune didn't wait for her response. He wasn't sure how much longer he would still be himself. He grabbed Crocea Mors near the point, lifted it up to his face - and then drove the blade into his skin, barely an inch above his right eye, as hard as he could.

 _This is... impressively dumb._

The pain was oddly late. But it came.

What use was dignity. **NO.** He screamed like he screamed when he was a child, before he'd figured out that pain eventually stops. **NO.** The blade didn't sink into his flesh nearly as deep as he'd expected it would given how hard he'd pushed, but something, his skull most likely, cracked loudly as it went in. **NO.** He took a deep breath, kept screaming, and then yanked the weapon down, along his face **NO.** trying, from memory, to trace the path of the pitch-black scar the Afterthought had left him with. It **NO.** seemed to take him a very long time to make the cut. There was a second gruesome cracking sound as the metal passed over the bridge of his nose. **NO.** Pyrrha was shouting **NO.** something at him, horrified, but true to her word she wasn't stopping him. And she wasn't **NO.** letting go of him. He finally finished re-opening the scar, accidentally taking out a great deal more of his chin than was strictly necessary. He let **NO.** Crocea Mors fall to the side. It was too heavy to keep holding. Hopefully he wasn't going to **NO.** need it again. If he bent down to retrieve it, he would probably pass out. **NO.** Then he thrust his fingers, already slippery with his own blood, into the newly **NO.** opened wound. He could only get them inside up to the first knuckle before they hit bone. His lungs had **NO.** run out of air a while ago, but he was still screaming, only silently now. **NO.** He fished around in the wound, beneath his skin, explored from above his **NO.** eye, to the bridge of his broken nose, to his **NO.** cheek. His finger ran along his teeth - from the outside. **NO.** He searched like he might find the answer to the all of the horrible problems somewhere inside him. **_NO._** But there was nothing to find. No Grimm spider to **NO.** rip out of him. Had he seriously thought this would work? The bug was already inside of his brain, well out of reach of his desperately grasping fingers. But he'd had to try. **NO.** Hadn't he? _Lord, it hurt so much._ But then... **NO.** His finger came across something that didn't feel like the rest of the ruined mess inside of his face. Something distinct. It **NO.** felt like string. His heart thudded in his chest. He twined the string around his fingers and pulled with all of his strength. He didn't have much left. When he looked down at his closed fist with his one eye that wasn't **NO.** obscured by blood, he found that he was holding a thin black thread. **NO.** He pulled **NO.** on it **NO.** harder. And slowly, it **NO.** came out of him, **NO.** inch by inch **NO**. This part didn't hurt nearly as much. **NO.** There aren't any nerves to **NO.** send the signal for pain inside of the **NO.** brain. Someone had **NO.** told him that once. A teacher. **NO.** In class maybe. The **NO.** thread was **NO.** coated in... matter. He **NO.** had no other **NO.** word for it. Little important bits of **NO.** him. He was **NO.** probably going to die. **NO.** Good. That was better _**NO.**_ than being **_NO._** one of _them_. The end of the **NO!** thread came free of his face with a wet, almost comedic pop.

And Jaune's mind was silent.

The Weaver dangled on the end of the string, spinning freely, all eight of its tiny legs dancing.

Jaune crushed it in the palm of his hand.

It certainly didn't feel like slaying a monster should. He could hear Pyrrha's ragged breathing, muffled sobs. Without his enhanced hearing they were so quiet and small. They felt so far away from him. Occasionally she would whisper his name. Jaune opened his good eye, blinked a few times, and realized that his partner was leaning down over him, framed by the sky. _When had he fallen on his back?_ It was probably bad that he didn't know.

He couldn't move any of his limbs. He opened his mouth, tried to say something, anything, to comfort his partner, but instead managed only to cough out a cloud of thick black smoke. His second skin, and the ivory bones layered over it, were beginning to disintegrate into the air. The process hurt - but if it meant that all of the Grimm parts of him were dying, he could tolerate a little more pain. In fact, he welcomed it.

But... how much of him was Grimm?

His vision dimmed for an instant - and then, mercifully, came back into focus. The sky was pale blue now, not crimson. Pyrrha looked like the Pyrrha he knew so well, watching him, concerned beyond words. Their eyes met, and she seemed to understand that whatever had happened, it was all nearly over now.

That was exactly when the Nevermore slammed into the mountain-side not five yards from them, throwing the both of them away from it in a blast of snow and mud.

* * *

Weiss watched as the Nevermore crashed into the ground.

It would have been a satisfying sight - if not for the fact that Blake had been thrown violently from the creature's back as it landed. The Faunus girl had no time to adjust herself in the air; she hit the ground gracelessly, bounced several times end-over-end, and then, when she finally slid to a stop, she didn't stand back up.

"We saved Blake!" Ruby cheered without a hint of sarcasm.

"Well..." Weiss replied. "I suppose getting her down _was_ step one of the plan..." _So much for cats always landing on their feet..._

Entirely too soon, the Nevermore was up on its feet, as though that magnificent crash landing had cost it nothing. It shook itself off, made the sort of abhorrent sounds only monsters could, and spread its wings - which were currently coated with several enormous chunks of solid ice.

The two huntresses had blasted the Grimm with enough dust rounds to pull it down out of the sky. However, Weiss knew that this sort of trick could only ever delay the creature... And sure enough, it immediately began to thrash about, beatings its wings together, shattering the ice.

Weiss looked on in concern. "So... does our plan have a step two?"

In answer, Ruby lifted Crescent Rose. "Bullets don't seem to be working very well." She transformed her weapon from its rifle form into its scythe form, her eyes suddenly wild with excitement. "I could try to stab it instead?"

"Let's maybe... stick a pin in that one for now. Other ideas?"

Ruby frowned at that, shifting the weapon back into a rifle. "We could find the others first - Blake, Pyrrha, Cardin. A little backup wouldn't hurt."

Weiss nodded her agreement. "That-" The Nevermore began wailing again, louder this time, all fury and malice. Weiss kept her ears covered until the awful sound had died down. "-might be for the best," she finished. She conjured another glyph in front of her partner. "Hit it with the rest of your magazine."

Ruby obliged, pointing her rifle through the ring. She peppered the Nevermore's body with an additional half-dozen rounds, each of which exploded into solid chunks of ice upon contact. The creature sagged slightly under the additional weight, before hurriedly redoubling its frenzied efforts to free itself.

"Let's move," Weiss said, scanning the slope. "They can't be too far..."

And she knew that much was true. They were all fighting on the length of a single rocky mountain slope after all. There were no features, no trees or bushes, for anyone to take cover behind. Anyone standing on this section of the mountainside _should_ be able to find anyone else with a glance.

Pyrrha and Cardin had been attacked by that that strange Grimm, Weiss knew - but that creature was hardly large enough to constitute a threat. Surely they would have dealt with it by now? She had no faith in Cardin, but Pyrrha wasn't one to be bested by some lesser Grimm, even one that had gotten the jump on her... And yet, Weiss didn't see either of them anywhere, neither up nor down the snowy hill. Rather uncomfortable possibilities started to occur to her. _Where on Remnant could they have gone...?_ None of the few remaining Beowolves on the hill appeared to be... eating anything.

She shuddered.

Then she stifled her worries and turned to follow Ruby downhill to join Blake. It would be easier to find the others with an additional set of eyes and ears, she reminded herself.

They reached their Faunus teammate without much trouble. Blake was back on her feet again, scraped and beaten and bruised, but otherwise still in one piece. She was also in the process of disassembling several Beowolves. The creatures had likely moved in to feed after her crash landing - only to find her more _lively_ than they had been expecting. And with the three members of team RWBY now working in unison, they made short work of the Grimm.

When that task was finished, Blake turned to consider her teammates. "Thanks for helping me down so gently, guys," she said sarcastically, before offering them a smirk. A thin trickle of blood was running down the side of her head.

"You're welcome," Ruby replied with the utmost sincerity.

"Blake," Weiss nodded, businesslike, though she couldn't help but smile as well. "I'm glad to see you're well. I don't suppose you spotted anyone else while you were in the air?"

Blake shook her head. "No. I was a bit..." She glanced towards the Nevermore, which was now busy furiously pecking at the ice on its wings. "...preoccupied. Who is it that we're looking for exactly?"

Weiss began to list off the missing hunters. She loathed the fact that it was technically enough people to constitute a list. "Jaune, Cardin, and-"

" _Pyrrha!_ " Ruby shouted.

"Yes," Weiss continued evenly, "and Pyrrha. You don't have to yell."

" _No!_ " Ruby raised her voice even louder, bouncing on her toes. " _I mean,_ _it's Pyrrha!_ " She gestured wildly over her teammates' shoulders. Weiss and Blake both turned around so quickly that they nearly snapped their own necks.

And there was Pyrrha, staggering towards them. Her clothes were torn in places and coated with mud, and her hair was free of her pony tail, pasted down against the side of her face - but her emerald eyes still shone through, completely unmistakable, even at a distance. She seemed to be hauling two... bundles... along behind her. What exactly those bundles were took a long moment to dawn on Weiss.

 _Jaune and Cardin.  
_

Ruby and Blake gasped. Weiss all but dove into Ruby's backpack, dug out her scroll (Weiss's own still wasn't working), and checked the display for individual aura levels, heart racing. Cardin was... missing three-fourths of his aura, and Jaune... had hardly more than a red sliver of his own remaining... But they were both still very much alive. Weiss let out a sigh of relief. "We need to help-"

But Ruby had already activated her semblance, leaving Weiss speaking only to a whirl of rose petals.

In the time it took to blink, Ruby had covered the distance between them, and begun to help Pyrrha drag the two boys closer, away from any inquisitive Grimm. Weiss and Blake rushed to meet them. Understandably, Pyrrha didn't waste any time with greetings. In a hoarse voice, she asked for one of their medical kits, and then, upon realizing that only Ruby still actually had her pack, reached inside to find it herself rather than wait.

Meanwhile, Weiss moved closer to inspect the injured boys - and grimaced. Jaune... was a mess. His face was a _ruin_. There was no other word for it. There was so much blood... so much _open_ that shouldn't be. Clearly, a Beowolf had gotten at him, though whether it had used its... claws or teeth was... impossible to say. Weiss found that she was having difficulty swallowing all of a sudden.

Cardin had a broken nose, she noted. That didn't seem quite as gruesome as it otherwise might have.

Beside her, Ruby spoke up quietly. "What... happened to him...?" She was staring down at Jaune as though she couldn't quite comprehend what she was seeing. All the cheer from only a few moments ago had drained right out of her. Weiss took Ruby by the shoulders and turned her away, partly so she would have an excuse to do the same. "But... we've seen Jaune beat Beowolves before," Ruby continued in disbelief. "We've seen it. Why didn't he...? _Why did he go alone?_ "

"I don't know."

Supplies in hand, Pyrrha began trying to clean out the wound. She would need more gauze than they had on hand - though no one said that aloud. No one said anything for a minute.

"Right," Weiss said, eventually. They all still needed to focus. "This is... _awful_... certainly, but we still have a few _pressing matters_ to deal with." She gestured at the Nevermore - realizing as she did so that one of its wings was now entirely free, and that it was working on unburdening the other. She continued more quickly. "We need to focus on the Grimm for now. This Nevermore. Then our target. None of us are safe while-"

"Our target's dead," Pyrrha stated apathetically, without looking up from her gruesome work. "I got it."

"Ah..." Weiss replied uncertainly. "...Excellent." Technically, this meant that they had successfully completed their first unsupervised mission. That was supposed to be a milestone achievement in their careers as hunters... Wasn't it? She found that she wasn't quite as thrilled as she'd imagined she would be. She glanced down at what was left of Jaune's face and tried not to retch. "That leaves only that _stupid_ bird then," she continued. "Now, we-"

In the distance, the Nevermore took to the air with a cry of triumph, momentarily blanketing the hunters in shadow as it passed in front of the sun.

"Looks like we're out of time," Blake noted, readying Gambol Shroud. "We'll have to figure it out as we go."

" _Fuck!_ " Cardin snapped loudly, making all of the distracted huntresses leap nearly a foot of the ground. He shoved himself up into a sitting position and glanced around at them all. "What the hell happened...? Ow. My fucking head. My fucking-" He brought a hand up to face and snarled in pain. "-nose...?" He took a deep breath. "Well... this is gonna suck." Then he grabbed his nose between his forefinger and thumb, and snapped it back into place. " _Fucking fuck! Wow, son of-_ "

That was about the time the barrage of black feathers came down on their heads.

Fortunately for everyone, Weiss had still been paying attention to the threat above, and had thrown up a protective glyph above them all. Unfortunately for everyone, she wasn't certain that she had enough aura left to maintain it until the feathers stopped falling.

When she had drawn Ruby's scroll to check on Jaune and Cardin's aura, she noticed that her own aura level had been fallen deep into the red as well...

But eventually, the rain ceased, and Weiss fell to her knees, wheezing. She already knew that she wouldn't be able to stop the next volley when it hit. Her aura reserves had never exactly been the most... robust, and she'd been fighting almost non-stop since the moment she'd woken this morning. She doubted very much that she even had enough strength left to stand back up.

"I see things are... not going well," Cardin said matter-of-factly, as he wiped at the blood dripping out from his nose with his sleeve. He reached down to the clip on his belt and found it empty. "Hey... where's my mace?" he demanded of them all.

Suddenly, Weiss felt as though she _did_ have some strength left after all. Enough to strangle one Cardin Winchester.

Did he not understand how serious the situation was? Did he not see that she was completely exhausted, and no one else present had a semblance that could stop those feathers? Did he not realize that they were sitting out in the open with no cover, and some of them were in no condition to run? Could he possibly be that thick? Or was he confident that _he_ would be able to get away safely if he needed to, and simply didn't care about what happened to the rest of them?

Pyrrha absently threw out her hand, and Cardin's mace lifted itself from the snow, and flew to his hand.

"Thanks," he grunted. He studied his weapon thoughtfully for a moment. "You know... that's a cool trick, Miss Champion. Moving things around. Is _that_ how you beat us in class?"

Pyrrha hardly seemed to hear him. "Sure," she replied simply, mechanically. "It's polarity." It seemed as though she had finished doing what little she could for Jaune. Bandages were pressed to his face, soaked through with blood. Pyrrha stood up, slowly, hesitating as though she were afraid to remove her hands from her partner.

"Cardin," Ruby said. "Do you really think now is the best time to be discussing-"

But, Cardin ignored the leader of team RWBY entirely. "And you," He instead looked down at Weiss, who was still on her knees in the snow. "Your semblance. Those... uh... circles..."

"Glyphs!" Weiss snarled.

"Sure. Sure." He waved off her frustration, further infuriating her. "I've seen you use them in combat class. You can... make stuff move faster, right?"

"I can manipulate kinetic energy," Weiss clarified. "Why?"

"I had a thought."

"Did it hurt?" Blake asked him, not taking her eyes off of the Nevermore - which was now circling back around for its next attack.

None of the hunters were in the best of shape at the moment. If they made a mad dash for the cover of the cliffs , Ruby would make it in time. With a little luck, Blake might as well. The rest of them almost certainly wouldn't. And the ancient Grimm must have somehow understood this. It flew in a pointlessly wide arc as it came back around, taking a great deal longer than necessary to return. Its wings flapped languidly. It knew that it had all the time in the world to eliminate them.

Cardin, who seemed oblivious to the approaching threat, met Blake's glare and bared his teeth. "Don't tell me you're still mad about the ears comment earlier, kitty?"

Weiss blinked at that, her worries actually forgotten for an instant. _Kitty?_

Ruby interrupted before a furious Blake could retaliate. " _Focus on the Nevermore please!_ " she begged them both. "Now, Cardin, you were trying to say that you have an idea?" Ruby kept her sniper trained on the approaching Nevermore, but offered Cardin a hopeful sidelong glance.

"That's exactly what I'm saying," he replied. "See, the thing is, from the moment I first saw that fucker, I've been thinking, 'how can I be the one that nails it?' That Nevermore is the biggest, scariest thing out here, after all. I definitely want the credit for that kill. But, as it turns out... it can fly, and... I don't have a gun."

Under less dire circumstances, Weiss might have rolled her eyes. This was a waste of valuable time. Did Cardin have a concussion? She used Myrtenaster to support herself as she climbed back to her feet. They had _maybe_ fifteen seconds until the Nevermore was close enough to finish them. There _had_ to be several more valuable ways to make use of that time. She only wished she could think of one.

"So," Cardin continued. "I came to the conclusion that... I was just going to have to throw my mace at it." He lifted his weapon, flipped it, caught it in his palm, held like a football. His aura hummed and his muscles flexed, straining the fabric of his jacket. "So, I'm gonna do that. _Really_ hard."

" _That_ is your brilliant plan?" Weiss asked. "That is possibly... the most _idiotic_ -"

"Unless of course, someone else has a better idea," Cardin added thoughtfully.

Weiss bit her tongue. No one else chimed in.

Cardin grinned his infuriating grin and continued. "So, Ice Queen, can you make another one of those glyphs? Right now."

"I... Yes. Of course. _One_ more." She hoped.

"Great." He held his arm straight out to one side, thrusting his mace right in front of a startled Pyrrha's face. "And you can move this around with your mind, right? How confident would you say you are in your aim?"

Pyrrha's eyes lit up, and for a moment she looked a great deal more like her usual self. She tapped the weapon with the back of her hand, and the metal began to glow dull gray, bending and distorting around the edges. "I won't miss."

" _Guys!_ " Ruby urged. " _Less banter. More calculated violence._ " She opened fire on the Nevermore, though to very little effect.

The creature had finally drawn close enough for another volley. It slowed, beating its dark wings to keep itself in the air above them. It studied the scene - prey as helpless as a Grimm could ever hope for - with its piercing crimson eyes. Then it cocked its wings back, preparing another burst of projectile feathers. It seemed to move with exaggerated slowness, as though to mock them - or to draw out their final moments, offer them enough time to really _feel_ the hopelessness and despair.

 _Well..._ Weiss thought. _How can Cardin's plan possibly be worse than one of Ruby's?_

So she conjured the glyph. Beside her, Pyrrha nodded, and threw both of her hands out in front of herself, focusing on the subtle nuances of the metal in Cardin's Mace. She sucked in a breath and held it, like a marksman with their finger hovering over the trigger.

Cardin took a running start and launched his mace, in a perfect spiral, following through on the throw with the weight of his entire body.

He had... one hell of an arm, Weiss would admit. Honestly, she doubted whether any other student at Beacon - save possibly Nora - could have matched the force behind the throw. In fact, she couldn't help but wonder if Cardin's semblance was somehow related to increasing his raw strength, or if this was simply the result of his intensive "brute force over all else" training regiment put on full display. Either way, it was far more than she had thought Cardin capable of.

The mace exploded from his hands, a gray blur.

And _then_ it passed through Weiss's glyph.

There was a deafening _CRACK_. And then the lump of metal was striking the Nevermore square in the beak - without first taking the time to pass through the empty air. One instant, it was was right in front of them. The next it was _there_ , half a sports field away. The Nevermore's beak exploded into a burst of shrapnel, followed very _, very_ shortly by the front, and then back, of its skull. The mace exploded out the other side of the creature's head, still moving nearly too quickly to be seen, trailed by a cloud of black mist - and for an instant the Nevermore wore a gruesome halo, suspended high above them, frozen still in space.

Then it began to fall.

It seemed to come down much too slowly, as though the corpse was falling through enormous cobwebs. When it landed on the mountain-side, it did so with a paltry puff of snow, and then it lay completely motionless, one wing bent at an odd angle. For a hunter, there was never a more beautiful sight.

The students took it all in in shocked silence - except for Cardin, who was roaring with laughter.

Weiss managed to shake off her disbelief for long enough to turn and look to Pyrrha. The tournament champion seemed as surprised as any of them by the destruction that their makeshift bullet had wrought. Weiss hadn't even been able to _see_ the mace while it was traveling, yet Pyrrha has somehow lead the shot, and placed it neatly between the Nevermore's eyes, either through impossible luck or impossible skill. Weiss suspected she knew which.

Then Weiss turned on Cardin, ready to ask that he stop cackling like a fool - and noticed that his right arm was hanging limp in its socket, supported only by his other arm. The force of that throw had dislocated his shoulder... She decided she would let him keep laughing. Perhaps he'd earned the right.

Ruby was the first to find her tongue. "That was _really_ awesome..." she said. She turned to Weiss. "Did it look that awesome when I killed that Nevermore during initiation? I didn't look back at that one because I wanted to seem cool. Was that one _this_ awesome...?"

"Ruby," Weiss replied, tiredly. "Do you still have the beacon?"

"What...? Oh, right!" Ruby drew her homing beacon from her pack and flipped the lid open. However, she needn't have bothered. The two drop-ships that had first dropped them off rounded the margin of the mountain and started towards them before she'd even clicked the button all the way down.

"Well, that was quick." Blake pulled out her bow and tied it around her Faunus ears.

The ships had already been looking for them. Someone from the other group must have run into serious trouble earlier and used their open beacon to signal for help. Weiss hoped none of them were hurt. They would find out in a moment.

As Cardin watched the ships approach, his laughter slowly died down to a chuckle. "I hope you all learned a valuable lesson during this mission," he said to them all, half smirking, half grimacing, as he cradled his arm.

"About... teamwork...?" Ruby ventured.

Cardin started to laugh again.

* * *

As the drop-ships soared off, the split members of teams RWBY, JNPR, and CRDL reunited with one another, and tended to their various wounded comrades. None of them spared so much as a glance back at the frozen mountain that they were finally leaving behind.

...

If they had, they might have seen the finals wisps of black smoke, like emaciated, grasping fingers, peeling off from the dead Afterthought's skin and then vanishing. They might have seen that the corpse left behind was now merely a simple Faunus with a missing eye, dressed in a faded work uniform. They might have seen the hundreds of black spiders, each with glowing red eyes, crawling from the corpse's mouth and nose, and skittering away over the surrounding snow.

...

They might have seen the new Afterthoughts. The creatures wandered from the mouth of a hollow on the mountain's peak, shielding their sensitive eyes with bone-clawed hands, not yet used to the brilliant sunlight. These Afterthoughts numbered about thirty - a small village worth - and they varied in build, some well over six feet tall, some thin, some muscled, some distinctly feminine, and a few who were no larger than children.

...

If the hunters had been looking back, they might have seen these Afterthoughts eat the Faunus's body.


	15. Betterment

Arc 1, Chapter 15

Betterment

* * *

"I'm pleased to see that you're feeling well enough to have this conversation, Mr. Arc," Ozpin said pleasantly. "From what I've been told, the medical staff is astonished by your recovery. They were predicting a great deal more scarring, and say that you were fortunate enough to avoid the worst of it. It would seem your aura works more quickly than most."

Jaune wasn't certain how to respond, so he offered the headmaster a brief nod of acknowledgement and then dropped his gaze to his hands, clasped together in his lap.

It had been nearly two weeks since the conclusion of their mission.

From what little Jaune could recall, he'd spent the first few days after his return laid out on a table in Beacon's medical center, drifting in and out of consciousness, while doctors and nurses tried to tend to his numerous lesser injuries while simultaneously reconstructing his mangled face. He was told the process had involved a high fever, awful infections, and a great deal of work with an unnervingly sharp scalpel.

The medical staff's efforts were, for the most part, a success.

Once he'd been more lucid, and up to the task of moving around, Jaune had been allowed to examine the results himself in a bathroom mirror. To his immense surprise, it was nearly impossible to tell that he had nearly torn his own face to shreds. Only a combination of his own powerful aura and the tireless work of several highly skilled surgeons had prevented him from looking like some sort of patchwork abomination.

So, he had voiced no complaints.

Though a familiar thin black scar still ran the length of his face.

Apparently, there was nothing to be done about it. It was there to stay. A part of him had dared to hope that the mark would heal as thoroughly as his other injuries. In fact, he would have gladly dealt with a dozen other more horrible, disfiguring scars if it meant this particular one would disappear. Unfortunately, it looked to be something he would have to wear forever, a constant reminder.

He would be avoiding mirrors whenever possible from now on...

"I must admit," Ozpin said, causing Jaune to jerk his head back up, "I was somewhat concerned when I was informed about the… incident the other night. It isn't often that an injured student suddenly decides to take their weapon to all of the furniture and equipment in our medical facility… in the dead of night." He raised an eyebrow. "Was it a nightmare perhaps?"

Jaune winced. He'd split his bed in two, skewered his pillow, demolished a couple of expensive looking machines, and peeled most of the room's wallpaper, before some orderlies had come in to stop him. "I… thought I saw a spider. Professor." _But I lost track of it._ _I couldn't leave it anywhere to hide..._

"Ah... I see..." Ozpin waited, as though for further explanation – but once again Jaune didn't quite know what to say, so he returned to carefully observing his lap.

"Well, in any case," Ozpin continued. "Injuries aside, your first mission _was_ a success. Your partner, Ms. Nikos, engaged and eliminated the creature of Grimm that you were sent to locate, and our technicians were able to successfully recover several images of it from Ms. Schnee's damaged scroll." Ozpin lifted his own scroll and tapped the display. His eyes narrowed, likely as he examined the pictures in question. "According to Ms. Nikos, the Grimm was… a great deal more formidable than anticipated… I've been told that you fought against it as well, is that correct?"

Jaune offered a barely perfectible nod. "Yes, Professor."

Ozpin studied him for a few more moment, and then continued. "Once all of your personal reports of this Grimm have been presented to the Council, I suspect that the information will be added to our collective network, free for all huntsmen and huntresses to access. The actions of teams JNPR, RWBY, and CRDL will undoubtedly help others in the future. You should be proud." He lowered his scroll, and began to organize a few errant documents on his desk. "I can't help but wonder what they will decide to call this Grimm…" he mused.

"An Afterthought," Jaune spoke before he could stop himself. "It was call- _I_ called it an Afterthought."

Ozpin paused and looked to him, brow furrowed. "That is… an interesting choice of name." He watched Jaune for a long moment, while the clockwork machinery of the office clicked away in the background. Eventually, he spoke again, "Our medical staff _does_ say that you've made a full recovery, correct, Mr. Arc? You have been cleared to resume classes, including combat class?"

Jaune continued trying not to be sick. "Yes, Professor."

The polite smile Ozpin had been wearing faded away – and Jaune realized suddenly that the headmaster hadn't looked at all comfortable wearing it. "Jaune…" he spoke, looking deeply sad all of a sudden. "Do _you_ feel that you have you fully recovered?"

"Of course, Professor. I-" Jaune hesitated for a moment. "I'm…" It was an easy answer. Or... it should have been.

Physically speaking? Jaune was as fit as he had ever been in his life.

According to the doctors, all of his injuries had healed remarkably quickly - even for a person with their aura unlocked- and there were no expected long-term complications. The wrist he'd broken already felt perfectly fine, with a full range of motion. His various welts and bruises had faded away and all of his cuts had healed. On the open palm of his right hand - where the flesh had been seared raw by the detonation of Cardin's mace - his skin was now smooth and unblemished. Both of his ruptured eardrums were mended, his hearing had come back in full. The list went on.

Yes, as far as Jaune could tell, his recovery had been a complete success. After what he'd been through, it was more than anyone could have expected. It was more than he could have hoped for.

So, then why hadn't he managed more than a few minutes of sleep at a time in two weeks?

Why couldn't he stop shaking? Why wouldn't his skin stop crawling? Why did he never stop wanting to scour himself with boiling water? Why did he flinch at every little, unexpected noise, as though he was expecting to be struck at any given moment? Why was he always nauseous?

Why had he been pretending to be asleep whenever his teammates came to visit him in the medical center? Why was he _ashamed_ to have them see him?

Physically, he was doing well. Mentally, maybe less so. He was a nervous wreck.

"No, I don't think I've fully recovered yet," Jaune admitted. "I've… I've definitely been better, Professor." He'd meant to say the words jokingly, but his voice cracked.

Ozpin nodded, frowning. "Yes, I could tell as much from the moment you walked in." The headmaster rose from his chair and walked around his desk, approaching Jaune. His cane clicked with each step. "The other members of teams JNPR, RWBY, and CRDL have already given me their individual accounts of the mission's developments," he explained as he walked.

He paused when he was standing directly in front of Jaune.

"It seemed to me that a few of them were rather… reluctant… to speak about some parts of the mission. There were more than a few… inconsistencies. For whatever reason, I don't think everyone was being entirely truthful with me."

Jaune tried to hold Ozpin's gaze, but it was one of such genuine concern that he couldn't manage it. He dropped his gaze back to his hands.

"For instance, Ms. Nikos was uncharacteristically vague and unhelpful when asked to elaborate on the events that lead up to you receiving your injuries. And a few of the others voiced concerns about your mental state, hinted that you might have been... negatively effected by the extended combat scenario. And yet, each of these individuals also declined to explain what might have lead them to that conclusion."

A few awful memories surfaced out of the muck of Jaune's mind. "They were right to be worried," he said. "I didn't do so well on this mission." He took a deep breath. "I... I don't think I belong here at Beacon, Professor. I've realized that I'm not cut out for this."

It killed him to say the words, but he knew it would be for the best...

"I respectfully disagree," Ozpin replied without pause. Then he stepped forward and placed his hand firmly on Jaune's shoulder. "It appears to me that _something_ happened during this mission – something the others are unwilling to discuss – and it involves you specifically. Am I correct, Jaune?"

"It was…" he began, as if there were words.

"Do feel free to swear."

" _I_ _fucked up_. _I fucked everything up._ " The words practically spilled out. Jaune's noticed his knuckles had gone white; he relaxed his hands, which were wrapped tightly around one another. "You really don't already know what happened, Professor?" he asked. "None of the others... told you?"

Ozpin smiled a bit at that. "If any of your friends know the particulars of your _fuck up_ , they have apparently decided that it isn't their place to share that knowledge. If they were military personnel, I believe that withholding such vital information would be considered a rather serious offense, actually."

Jaune winced.

"Luckily we are not a part of the military, and they are not simple soldiers," Ozpin said. "You are hunters. And I do believe that you have what it takes to _continue_ to serve as one, Jaune - though the decision is still yours. That being said, we have arrived at the reason for this meeting. I take it you know why you're here today?"

How could he not? "You need my account of what happened," Jaune replied.

"Yes." Ozpin returned to his chair, leaned forward on his desk. "I know that this may be exceptionally difficult for you - _and for that I am sincerely sorry_ \- but, every piece of information that you share could well save lives. We need to know about our enemy."

 _Save lives, huh..._

Well, that _was_ one of the reasons that Jaune had snuck into Beacon academy in the first place, wasn't it? That, or to be a hero. Or to slay monsters. Or to rescue a beautiful princess. How had he never once considered that he might utterly fail at each and every one of those tasks? It was strange how _that_ possibility hadn't ever occurred to him considering it had always been the most likely outcome.

"I want you to start from the beginning. Tell me everything that you remember."

So Jaune did.

* * *

The Ursa lumbered forward more quickly than a creature of its size had any right to move, flattening the wild grass beneath it.

Jaune watched its approach, held Crocea Mors and his shield at the ready, and reminded himself that he wasn't actually as small and weak and clumsy as he felt at the moment. The very first Grimm he had ever managed to kill had been an Ursa _Major_. As long as he stayed focused, he should be able to handle this far less deadly, common Ursa.

After all, he knew now that there were far worse things than an Ursa.

The Grimm reached him, charging at full speed, and lifted one of its broad arms, aiming a swipe at his chest. Crocea Mors intercepted the blow halfway and sliced the Ursa's paw off at the wrist. Jaune brought his shield up, batted the now crippled appendage aside, and circled around to one side, as the Grimm stumbled by him and came crashing down to the ground.

It then began to stand back up - until Jaune approached and severed its other front arm, dropping the creature face-first back into the grass. To the Ursa's credit, even then it continued crawling towards him on its stomach, dragging itself on stumps, gnashing its teeth. In a way, the sight was almost morbidly fascinating.

Jaune frowned. _I nearly wound up like this...?_

He knocked the Uras's head to the side with his boot, exposing the flesh of its neck, and drove his blade deep inside. The Grimm floundered even more wildly for a few short moments, spewing ichor, before it finally went still. Wanting to make certain it was actually dead, Jaune lowered himself into a crouch and watched the crimson glow fade from its eyes.

His heart was pounding. It was possible, he would concede, that he was now... the slightest bit paranoid.

Who knew if Grimm could be _ordered_ to play dead?

When he was sure of his kill, he turned and looked back to the tree line of the Emerald Forest. A few more Grimm had been drawn out by the sounds of combat. A second Ursa. Several Beowolves. It didn't exactly constitute a horde, but it was more Grimm than Jaune had ever seen this close to Beacon Academy's grounds. It was rare to come across even a single Grimm at the foot of the Emerald cliffs. Normally, one would need to hike a distance into the forest before they began to find monsters.

Apparently that was no longer the case.

It was funny to think, in all the horrible excitement of their away mission, Jaune had nearly forgotten that the Kingdom of Vale, his home, was practically in a state of siege. It seemed the Grimm were still gathering around the Kingdom's borders in unheard of numbers, as though drawn to humanity - more desperately than ever before. They were boldly encroaching on civilization, pressing in on Vale from all sides. It seemed almost as if something was calling to them all, and Jaune felt he could now make an educated guess as to what that _something_ \- or _somethings -_ might be.

He'd met one, after all.

When Ozpin had first filled the team leaders in on the situation, back when he'd given them their mission, he'd assured them all that despite the threat everything was well under control. He'd told them that huntsmen and huntresses from all over Vale were being summoned to reinforce the Northern, Western, and Southern borders (the East faced the open sea, and so required a lesser force to hold). He'd told them that, under the Council's direction, the military had already begun to organize a defense, enlisting a sizeable chunk of Beacon's teaching staff and older students. He'd told them that Atlas forces were mobilizing to assist.

That had been two weeks ago. He hadn't heard a bit of official news since.

Though, he supposed, that was kind of the point.

According to Ozpin, the Council would be working to conceal the truth, trying to avoid a mass panic. As far as Jaune knew, Ozpin had only ever informed teams RWBY, JNPR, and CRDL about the dramatic increase in Grimm. The rest of Beacon's students were clueless - or, at least, they were supposed to be. Jaune had only been out of the medical center for a few hours now, and already he'd heard a few disturbing rumors floating around in Beacon's hallways.

Hunters talked. Soldiers talked. People talked.

It was impossible to ensure that a massive military defense campaign remained a secret indefinitely. When word began to reach the civilians - and it would - people were going to panic. That would mean lots of unchecked negative emotions. Which would only draw in Grimm in even greater numbers. Causing even more panic. The result would be an endless downward spiral... and if nothing was done, possibly the destruction of one of the four kingdoms of Remnant.

But it wasn't like Jaune was in a position to do anything about that. He was only a student at Beacon. The _worst_ student at Beacon. What could he possibly do?

He started towards the Grimm newcomers that had stalked out of the Emerald Forest. They'd quickly taken notice of him, likely due to his mood.

The Beowolves were the first to reach him and, as always, they seemed only too eager to throw themselves onto his sword in a desperate attempt to close the distance, to close their jaws around his throat. The thought of self-preservation never seemed to occur to the creatures. _Thought_ never seemed to occur to them. They fell to fatal blows, disemboweled one by one - and even the last, the one that had watched each of its brethren massacred in turn only seconds before, never even slowed down.

Next, Jaune turned to address the second Ursa.

It was, of course, slower than the Beowolves, and was only now moving into range. Jaune rushed to meet it, hammering it in the nose with his shield before it could attack. It stumbled backwards, dazed, but Jaune followed closely and struck it in the head again. Then again. And again. It fell backwards to the ground, stupidly flailing its arms. Jaune easily avoided the claws, and continued bashing it in the face with his shield. He never even thought to use his sword. This was far more... satisfying. Eventually, when all that remained of its head was sticky, black paste and bone shards, he stopped, breathing heavily.

Only a short while ago, the thought of fighting several creatures of Grimm at once would have left Jaune feeling sick with worry. Now, he was more than capable of doing so - and yet he still felt weaker than he ever had in his life.

When he'd _been_ one of the monsters, he'd been so quick and powerful. Though he'd only had those advantages for a short time, losing them made Jaune feel excessively slow and clumsy, like he was trying to fight underwater. Now, killing Grimm left him feeling tired and frustrated, because he knew he was giving his all only to dispatch a few of the lowliest creatures. With a sigh, Jaune checked the edge of the forest again.

Another pair of red eyes were peering out at him. After a moment, they blinked and vanished. Their owner had apparently decided to move on - which meant it had been an older Grimm, one that was more selective when it came to choosing prey. Most likely, it was an Ursa Major or an Alpha Beowolf.

Or an Afterthought.

A hand fell on Jaune's shoulder, pulling his attention. "That was well done, Jaune," Pyrrha said to him. "I don't think I've ever seen you move so soundly, though some of that probably could have been done more... efficiently." She smiled in a way clearly meant to be encouraging.

Jaune blinked a few times. "Uh... Yeah," he agreed, looking back to the now empty woods. "It probably could have been."

Lost in the excitement of combat, he'd somehow forgotten that Pyrrha was standing nearby - had been this entire time, watching him fight. And he had just gone out of his way to savagely bludgeon an Ursa to death, hadn't he? It was possible he may have drawn out the deaths of those Beowolves longer than strictly necessary, made a few extra incisions...

He must have looked like a lunatic. Or a monster. For Pyrrha of all people, that must have dredged up some unpleasant memories.

 _Lord_ , he'd actually tried to kill her...

"I'll... work on that," he said, sheathing Crocea Mors.

Pyrrha nodded.

Neither of them said anything else for a while.

Typically, Beacon students weren't permitted to enter areas populated with Grimm by themselves - which was why Pyrrha was standing here with him. Jaune had hardly taken a single step out of the elevator from Ozpin's office, had hardly finished reliving his nightmare by explaining it in minute detail, when he'd been overcome with a desperate need to find some creatures of Grimm and kill them. In some inexpressible way he wanted to... see where it was he stood at the moment. He didn't know what to make of the sentiment, but it felt important, so he didn't even try to ignore it. He let it carry him out here.

And, without thinking, he'd hurried to call Pyrrha, and asked her to accompany him to the Emerald Forest. She had seemed concerned - likely because the first thing he wanted upon being released from the medical bay was to find a fight - but still, she'd agreed to come.

Jaune probably hadn't eased her worries by brutalizing every Grimm he'd fought, like a child amusing itself by pulling the wings off of flies.

"I told Ren and Nora what happened," Pyrrha said suddenly, breaking the silence. "Or rather, I told them everything I know. I can't really say I have any idea what _actually_ happened. I only know what I saw... They asked me how you'd gotten hurt and I... I wasn't about to lie to them about something so important. I'm sorry." For some reason she sounded as though she expected him to be furious with her.

Jaune didn't feel angry. In fact, he found that he didn't really feel much of anything about that decision. Everyone who didn't already know about him transforming into a Grimm had been bound to find out eventually.

"You don't have to apologize," he said. And he found that he meant it. He owed his partner his life; every second he lived from now on was a loan from her. He couldn't think of anything else to add for a few moments. "...When you told them, did they believe you?"

"Not... at first," Pyrrha admitted.

"I guess that's not surprising," he replied eventually.

They fell back into silence. Jaune found himself wishing more Grimm would attack, to offer him a distraction.

"I'm not sure... how to be of help, exactly," Pyrrha stated, apropos of nothing . "But I want to do something. So do Nora and Ren. If you need us to do anything at all, lend you an ear, drop the topic entirely, anything, please just say the word... This is unfamiliar ground for me..." She hesitated for an instant. "I know that you were... pretending to sleep whenever we would visit you in the medical bay..."

Jaune winced. "Ah. You all noticed that then?" He mentally kicked himself. _How could they not notice?_ They'd tried visiting him at all hours of the day and always found him 'asleep'. "Sorry... I didn't feel much like talking. I was busy trying to... think on things... before I focused on anything else."

Pyrrha nodded. "You needed space. I understand."

She didn't. She couldn't possibly. But, Jaune knew it was his responsibility as her team leader and friend to _make_ her understand.

He hadn't been looking forward to this moment, dreading it really, but he wouldn't allow Pyrrha to one day face what he had without any idea of the danger. Afterthoughts. Weavers. Explaining what he had been through to Ozpin had been like tearing the memories out of his own head, while they kicked and screamed and protested. So... not far off from what had actually happened to him.

Pyrrha wasn't about to ask him what had happened; she was too kind to make him talk about it. But, he knew that he had to tell her. Maybe this time it would be easier?

"There was a spider," Jaune began quietly. "A little Grimm spider. You could have crushed it with your thumb."

Pyrrha waited, clearly confused, but didn't interrupt him.

"Another new species, maybe. It... crawls under people's skin through open wounds." He ran his hand down the black scar on his face. "I don't know how it did what it did, but it... got inside my head. It could _speak_ to me, in my thoughts. It could actually speak, Pyrrha."

Pyrrha looked concerned rather than utterly repulsed - so he obviously wasn't explaining well enough.

He pushed on. "The Afterthought - that's... the armored Grimm you killed - it placed the Weaver on me at some point during our fight. It even let me escape so I could... change... near other people. At first, I didn't even realize what was happening. How could I have? Who would ever assume that a Grimm was inside their head...? You know, for a little while I even thought it was my semblance activating." He chuckled, still staring into the Emerald Forest.

"I mean, suddenly, I wake up and I have sharper senses, like I was a Faunus, or, I guess, an animal. Maybe Grimm have heightened senses too? I don't know. But I could see in the dark. I was fast and I never got tired and I never tripped over my own feet when I moved. I must have been as strong as _Nora_ , Pyrrha. Can you imagine that? I can't remember ever feeling so _excited_ , so confident in my self. I felt like a real huntsman for once... That probably should have been a warning sign, huh?"

Pyrrha began to disagree, stopped herself, and, after some deliberation, instead asked, "This Grimm could control you?"

"Yeah. It didn't let me worry about what was happening, turned that... part of me off somehow, like a flipped switch. I couldn't feel _anything_ besides... calm. And later, hungry." Jaune sucked in a breath through his teeth. "Then, it started... I don't know, replacing bits of me with bits of itself, found the things that I wanted most, stuck its own wants in there piece by piece. I started to forget what it was I wanted in the first place." Jaune thumbed the hilt of Crocea Mors. "I should have tried to... fight back... somehow. I almost killed you, Pyrrha. _I almost killed you._ " He turned his head, looked to her for the first time. "I'm so sorry."

And he was shocked to find that Pyrrha looked _furious._

" _You_ ," she stated adamantly, stepping closer. " _have nothing to apologize for._ You had absolutely no say in anything that happened to you, or to me." The emerald fire in her eyes actually made Jaune take a step back. "I was always taught that _choices_ are what define us, Jaune. We make the choices we feel are best, and then live with the results. But it sounds to me like you weren't given the opportunity to make a choice. You were manipulated. So don't you _dare_ put the blame on yourself, not for things you didn't even choose to do."

He'd never seen Pyrrha angry... much less directing that anger at him. She hardly seemed the same person he had been speaking to only an instant before. He imagined this is how she must have seemed to her opponents during tournament bouts, and realized, somehow for the very first time, how terrifying it would be to fight Pyrrha Nikos in an actual match.

"Pyrrha, you don't-"

"Did you choose to attack me, Jaune?"

"I- No. Of course not."

"That's right. A creature of Grimm made that choice, not you."

" _You're missing the point_ ," Jaune said, with sudden frustration. He wasn't sure where it boiled up from, and the anger surprised him as much as it seemed to surprise Pyrrha. "It doesn't matter what my intentions were. I stumbled off into the forest, chasing after a Grimm we knew nothing about because I was overconfident. I got myself into that mess by being an idiot. And other people nearly paid for my mistake." He tried to control his feelings, to smother the negativity before he made himself a target for Grimm, like always did. For the first time he could recall, he failed utterly.

Pyrrha, who had been cowed slightly by his outburst, tried to protest, but Jaune continued over her. "I tried to kill you. Blake watched me sic a Nevermore on her like it was an attack dog. I beat Cardin senseless, then tried to gut him. I nearly _strangled_ Weiss while you were asleep a few steps away. Did she mention that to you?"

He didn't miss how Pyrrha paled at that.

"It might not have been me that _chose_ to do those things, but it was still my hands doing all the work." He flexed them in front of her face for emphasis. "Do you have any idea how that feels? How do I just... continue as if nothing happened after that, Pyrrha?! Yeah, maybe _you_ forgive me, or say there's nothing to forgive, but what about Weiss? What about Yang? I ordered a pack of Beowolves after her little sister and then _watched_. When Yang finds out about that, do you really think she won't remember what I did... forever, won't think about it every single time she looks at me?"

Jaune wondered exactly when he'd started shouting.

"But, no. No. You - and Professor Ozpin - tell me that everything is perfectly fine, that my mess has been cleaned up, and that I haven't done anything wrong. Like I'm some little kid that can't possibly be held responsible for his actions because he didn't know any better? I wanted to be a huntsman, a knight in shining armor! Funny right? That was all I've ever wanted. Yet somehow I managed to be the damsel in distress. Again. And as if that wasn't enough of a screw up, then I became the monster too! And I didn't even have the decency to wind up slain. It can't just... be over... without some sort of... _punishment_!"

Pyrrha stepped towards him then, and for instant Jaune thought she might kiss him, like she had beside the lake.

Instead she punched him square in the jaw.

Recently, Jaune had begun to understand that absolutely nothing could give a man pause like a sudden kiss or a swift sucker punch. The two were interchangeable really. He stumbled backwards, clutching his jaw, his bitter anger and frustration snuffed out like a candle.

"Ow."

His partner was staring back at him, looking as surprised as he was, if that was possible. Jaune had never seen someone try so desperately to cry out the word 'sorry' using only their eyes. But Pyrrha forced her mouth shut and instead said, "Was _that_ punishment enough for you?"

"I... suppose so...? I think I taste blood."

"Good."

"Listen Pyr, I'm-"

"You better not be about to apologize to me again. Don't. Not for the mission. Not for shouting. Not for anything."

"Um... Right. You either then, I guess."

"Fine."

A few beats of silence. And then he was grinning for some reason. And then so was Pyrrha. And then they were both laughing. Why, Jaune had no idea. He knew he could as easily have been sobbing instead, but since he was sort of... broken at the moment, he was lucky enough to have a choice in the matter, so he'd made one.

Pyrrha had mentioned choices, claimed that they define people, that you make your choices and then you live with them. Jaune thought about which, if any, choices he wanted to make at the moment. He decided that he was going to resume training with his team as soon as he could, tomorrow if possible.

His desire to be a huntsman hadn't fled him yet. He wouldn't let the monsters make that choice for him too.

"You know, Pyrrha" Jaune said, recovering from his bout of laughter. "This is the second time that you've had to literally knock some sense back into me. If you'd asked me a month ago whether I thought there was ever a good time to get hit in the head... Well, what I'm trying to say is, thank you. Honestly."

"You know I'll do it again if necessary, Jaune," Pyrrha replied - and she seemed much too happy about that.

Jaune eyed the spear that hung on his partner's back. It looked... very solid. "Lucky me."

More lucky than he could say.

"I don't think we're going to find more Grimm around here," Pyrrha noted. "If there were more of them around, I think they would have shown themselves by now. We were quite loud. Did you manage to... figure out whatever it was you came out here to figure out...?"

"I'm... not sure. I'm better at killing Grimm than I was. But much worse at it than I need to be."

"That's alright. We can continue to work on that. I'll help whenever you want me to." She placed a hand on his shoulder. "But, just so you're aware, Team RWBY is throwing another party, to celebrate our first successful mission."

"But the mission ended two weeks ago..."

Pyrrha grinned. "They've been throwing one every few days since we got back. Yang is draining her bank account of lien to pay for all the alcohol." Her grin turned into a frown. "I... think it would be... good for you, to be there. You shouldn't return to training tonight, so soon after you've healed. And... If what you told me is true, you really need to speak to team RWBY about what happened... There are... some things that you shouldn't wait too long to address."

She was right. She usually was. And Jaune knew, the longer he waited to speak to team RWBY, the worse that the discussion would be. He imagined that Weiss and Blake had already told the others all about the awful things he'd done - awful things that they lacked the context to understand. He would have to at least attempt to explain himself to them.

Maybe beg on his knees for forgiveness.

"Stopping by the party sounds like a great idea." Jaune sighed. "After all, I... might need a few drinks in me for this."

* * *

Jaune hesitated, his hand frozen in the air a few short inches from team RWBY's dorm room door. No matter how he tried, he couldn't picture them being pleased to see him... Beside him, Pyrrha waited patiently. She would have his back no matter how far south this reunion went. He sucked in a breath and forced himself to knock.

"Who is it?" a voice called from inside. Ruby.

"Probably Pyrrha," said another, Yang this time. "She did say she was coming."

"Ah, right," Ruby agreed, before shouting, "Come in! Its not locked!"

Jaune looked to Pyrrha, who offered him an encouraging nod. He pushed the door open and stepped inside. "Um... Hey guys..." he said nervously.

Ruby and Nora hit him at the same time, throwing their arms around his waist, practically tackling him back out into the hallway.

"Jaune's awake!" Ruby cried.

"Are you all better, or do we have to be extra careful not to hurt you?" Nora asked, as she did her damnedest to crush his ribs. She didn't seem to notice the incongruity there.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Jaune chuckled, trying to pry the two off of him - with little success. "I have a clean bill of health as of today."

This was a fairly promising start - hugs rather than glares. But how did the others feel about his visit? He risked a glance into the room.

Everyone else was seated together in a circle in the middle of the room. From the looks of it, they'd been playing a card game. Ren grinned and offered a nod, which Jaune promptly returned. Yang was leaning back against her bed, waving at him enthusiastically, absolutely no hint of the anger he'd been expecting. Had she somehow not heard about what he'd done yet...? Blake's expression was perfectly unreadable, as always. She was maddeningly difficult to get a read on. And last was Weiss. She watched him, frowning slightly. Right. That meant he knew who to prostrate himself in front of first then. He stepped inside, walked right up to Weiss.

He had to fight back an urge to _actually_ drop to his hands and knees. "Listen, Weiss, I really need to apologize-"

She cut him off immediately. "No, you don't."

It took him a minute to process what she'd said, to make certain he hadn't misunderstood. His mouth opened and closed a few times. Eventually he settled on saying, "What?" like a complete moron.

Was no one going to let him finish an apology today?

Everyone else turned to watch the conversation, and they all looked nearly as confused as Jaune felt. Shouldn't Weiss be berating him, shouting, hitting him, drawing her weapon? Something? Anything?

"Nora explained the situation to me," Weiss said simply. "I hadn't realized that you were suffering from such a serious head injury. Though it does make sense in retrospect. Of course, common symptoms would include: drowsiness, confusion, seizures, nausea, and occasionally extreme _shifts in personality_." She finished her list and looked to the others. "Jaune and I got into a bit of a... heated argument during the mission," she explained. "Water under the bridged now, of course. He wasn't in his right mind at the time. I hadn't thought to mention it to you all, because it really wasn't worth mentioning."

"Wait... Head injury?" Jaune asked, lost. Did this mean she hadn't told her teammates about how he'd tried to throttle her?

"Yeah!" Nora cried out loudly. "I told them everything the doctors said, about how you'd suffered that _terrible_ head injury. Remember? It was during your fight with that Grimm. Pow! That thing must have clocked you good to have you wandering away by yourself in a daze in the middle of the night. Isn't that right?" Unseen by the others, she offered him a conspiratorial wink.

 _Huh?_

Pyrrha said she'd already told Nora about how he'd basically turned into a Grimm...

So, that meant right now Nora was... trying to come up with a story to explain what he'd done? She'd lied to team RWBY? And... _brain damage_ was what she'd ultimately decided on? He only just stopped himself from laughing aloud. Well, that was kind of her, but there was no way anyone would ever believe such a ridiculous story. He would still have to tell team RWBY the truth...

He paused.

Now that he thought about it, no one aside from Pyrrha and Cardin had gotten a real look at him after his _change_ \- black skin and all - had begun.

A head injury _was_ a ridiculous excuse. But then again, there was no way anyone would ever believe that he'd been mind-controlled by a creature of Grimm either...

Weiss bowed her head. "I'm sorry that I didn't notice the problem sooner. It may have prevented some... unpleasantness. We should have given you a full examination after you returned with an injury to your face." She eyed his new scar sadly. "I understand that sometimes an individual who is concussed and disoriented can react with... unwarranted aggression. I know you meant nothing by it. So, as I said, please don't worry yourself about our argument."

Now Weiss was apologizing? To him? Jaune stuttered a bit, but couldn't manage anything more coherent. She kept pointedly using the word 'argument' instead the more accurate term, 'attempted murder'. So... not only did Weiss believe Nora's head trauma explanation, but she had also kept quiet about the fact that he'd practically strangled her? Why? Didn't Weiss hate him? That was hell of a thing to just... forgive.

Jaune's head was spinning. "I- um... well, I won't worry about it then. Are you _sure_?"

"You scared me half to death you know," Blake added from her position on the floor. "I watched you wander right into a pack of Beowolves, looking as though you had no clue where you even were... I thought you'd gone insane. It's lucky for you that the Grimm were all as shocked as I was. They didn't seem sure what to do with a meal that came and delivered itself right to them." She smirked at the thought. "I've never seen the monsters stand so still. And then you started waving at the Nevermore and startled it so badly that it took off."

Ruby tried to hide her snicker by pretending to cough into her sleeve.

Yang chipped in then too, smiling broadly. "Wow. You and me, Jaune, we got into all sorts of trouble on this mission, eh? You accidentally bumbled your way into and then out of danger like an old-timey cartoon character in a construction site, and I woke up spooning a Beowolf and then gave it a _thorough_ oral exam." She stripped out of her jacket, displaying a nasty white scar that ran around her bicep. "I swear I touched a lung while I was in there."

There was more laughter, though Jaune didn't join in. He was too busy being positively astonished and, he would readily admit, relieved. Thanks to Nora's impromptu lie... it seemed like none of the members of team RWBY realized the full extent of what happened. They didn't know he was a monster.

 _They didn't hate him_. He hadn't realized exactly how much that fear had been weighing on him until it was removed.

At some point team RWBY would need to learn about the Afterthoughts and Weavers - those god-awful living nightmares - but that could happen whenever Professor Ozpin and the Council decided to share that information with all of the huntsmen and huntresses.

For now, they could all still be friends.

He might have cheered, but he managed to reign in his excitement. Barely. He was still beaming like a lunatic. "Yeah, yeah the mission was very eventful, and we can share a good laugh at my expense later," he said, "but, I thought we were here tonight to have a crazy party. So why is it still so quiet?"

Nora leapt up onto his back, nearly taking him down. "Our leader is right!" she cried. "Now that everyone is _finally_ here, we have to celebrate harder than ever!" She pointed across the room at something.

It was then that Jaune noticed it. The bottle of alcohol on the table was identical to the one Yang had acquired last time: label scraped off, filled with an unknown, clear liquid, could be smelled from across the room, inside the closed bottle. His stomach churned remembering what the drink had done to him last time... Someone had taken it upon themselves to string up police caution tape around it. He decided not to ask where they'd gotten the tape.

Pyrrha noticed him noticing. "Ruby has taken it upon herself as a team leader to ban alcohol after the last few parties," she explained. "You missed quite a few... uh... disasters while you were still recovering. Things got out of hand. Ruby felt that banning drinking would be the responsible thing to do."

"Ah." Jaune said, nodding in understanding. "That does make sense. A very sensible decision, Ruby."

"Why thank you, Jaune."

"Boo!" Yang cried - and the two sisters stuck their tongues out at each other.

"A _very_ sensible decision," Jaune repeated thoughtfully. Then he strode across the room, snatched the bottle from the table, twisted off the cap, and tipped it up to his lips. He could barely hear the mix of cheers and cries of terror that this caused; the _taste_ was too damn loud. Despite that, he gulped down as much of the burning liquid as he could, before slamming it back down on the table. "However," he announced, coughing, "I've been stuck in a hospital bed, staring at a wall for three weeks. I came here for a celebration. So, as a fellow team leader, I am cancelling Ruby's order and assuming command of this operation."

Yang flew to her feet, kicking the playing cards into the air around her. "There we go, vomit boy! I was practically falling sleeping with my eyes opened here. I can't imagine a better time for a mutiny." Nora bounced over to join her and together they began to chant. "Mutiny! Mutiny! Mutiny!"

Ruby gave him a look of utter betrayal. Weiss looked at the alcohol apprehensively and groaned. Blake shrugged.

Pyrrha sighed. "I'll go find some cups and soda," she said, turning to leave the room. Jaune didn't miss the pleased look she was sporting as she left. He felt the same way. Things couldn't possibly have resolved themselves more smoothly.

 _Wow._ He hadn't had a reason to be happy in a while.

As everyone else began to make as much of a ruckus as possible, arguing and moving furniture aside and trying to find loud enough music on their scrolls, Ren stood and walked over to stand beside Jaune.

"I owe Nora a _serious_ favor," Jaune offered as greeting.

"You do," Ren agreed. "How are you feeling?" It was clear from the way his eyes scanned Jaune's scar that he didn't mean physically.

"Fine. Glad to be back."

"Alright then." Ren didn't inquire any further, and Jaune was immensely thankful to him for that.

"No!" Ruby cried out, as she tried to wrestle the bottle away from Nora. "This is going to be the last time we drink Nora! I'm serious this time! And we are not playing truth or dare again! Or spin the bottle! I mean, we would have to finish the entire bottle before we could even play that!"

"That's the plan!" Nora cackled.

Yang threw her bed sheets over Ruby's head from behind and held her inside as the poor huntress kicked and struggled. "Sorry, little sis. This _is_ a mutiny after all. We have to dispose of the old captain."

"I'll have you court-martialed, soldier!"

Ren sighed and turned away from the scene to look to Jaune. "Welcome back. Please don't drink _too much_ tonight. I can't take care of everyone by myself. Not again. I may not survive it this time." He sounded legitimately worried.

"Don't worry, I'll try not to overdo it," Jaune lied.

He was really home. 

* * *

_**End of Arc 1**_


	16. Interlude I

Interlude I

* * *

"Do you believe the kid's story?"

"I'm afraid I do."

"I was kind of hoping you would say he was full of shit." There was a pause - the man speaking through scroll took a long drink from something. "Well, I guess I already knew this was legitimate, since you said he mentioned a spider. Another Grimm bug, eh? There goes what little peace of mind I had left."

"The news is... exceptionally dire," Ozpin agreed.

"Yeah." Another pause. "You know, you exposed both of my nieces to a great deal of unnecessary danger."

"Yes. I am aware, Qrow." _Another mistake... to be added to the tally._ Ozpin massaged the bridge of his nose, suddenly feeling exhausted. "This mission was meant to be an opportunity for them to spread their wings in an environment with minimal danger. Those students - Ruby and Yang included - have tremendous skill and potential. They needed real experience. But this Grimm..."

"Wasn't just any Grimm," Qrow finished for him. "You expected the little huntsmen and huntresses in training to gather your data and to exterminate a possible threat, in the process learning that _all they had to do all along was believe in themselves_. You've always been too optimistic for your own good. Though, I suppose, if this had been some commonplace Grimm species, you would have been right."

"Weavers. Afterthoughts." Ozpin used the same terminology that Mr. Arc had. "As it turned out, instead of a single new species of Grimm, there were two. And they were considerably more dangerous than anyone could have anticipated." _Though I should have been prepared for every eventuality - after all this time, have I really learned nothing?_ "At worst, I imagined a creature on the level of an Alpha Beowolf or an Ursa Major. What the students discovered is nearly unprecedented in the history of humanity's struggle against the Grimm. These new creatures... the manner of their propagation is... deeply concerning."

"That's one way of putting it," Qrow replied. "Everyone knows that Grimm don't have auras. No souls. Exactly how worried should we be now that they've figured out a way to _borrow_ them from people?"

 _And to corrupt them, apparently._ "The Afterthought that the students found - likely a manipulated villager - fought on par with perhaps the most talented combatant at Beacon, Ms. Nikos - and Mr. Arc said that this individual hadn't even unlocked his aura before he'd been... assimilated. Mr. Arc was a few seconds away from becoming one of the creatures himself, but the difference is, he _did_ have access to his aura. As a result, he was even more powerful than the lesser Afterthought. He told me, in no uncertain terms, that he would have beaten Ms. Nikos if he hadn't been prompted to carelessness by his _hunger..._ and then caught off guard by a somewhat unusual maneuver."

"So, this bug can change any random civilian it infects into an extremely competent Grimm fighter, and any huntsman or huntress it infects into a nearly unstoppable, aura-fueled, Grimm monster? _And_ they retain a human level of intelligence?"

"That's not even the worst of it. In the wake of the recent Grimm attacks on Vale's borders, Vale's military reports a failure to evacuate somewhere between five-hundred and one-thousand villagers. They remain unaccounted for - assumed dead. However, given what we now know, that... might not be the case."

Qrow caught his meaning and let out a low whistle. "Let me get this straight. You're saying that the _full-scale invasion_ that we're currently barely fending off... _was only a distraction_ so they could snatch up some defenseless villagers, creating an even more dangerous ground force for themselves?" He began laughing madly. "Is that the gist of it?"

"Yes." Ozpin turned in his chair, looking out at the sprawling landscape beyond Beacon. _They also simultaneously removed the Kingdom's main producers of raw materials like stone and lumber, further limiting our dwindling resources._ The strike was disturbingly well planned out. "And if we send out our best warriors to meet these _Afterthoughts_ in battle," he continued, "we will undoubtedly wind up with casualties - meaning, we may later have to face our former comrades as even more powerful Grimm recruits."

"Force humanity to kill itself. Swell. So, how does this... ailment spread? You said the kid mentioned... eggs?" Qrow made a spitting sound. "I don't even like thinking about that. Makes my skin crawl."

"It would seem the Weavers lay eggs inside of their hosts - using them as an incubator of sorts. Mr. Arc claimed that he was told this explicitly, by the Weaver itself. I'm inclined to believe that it's the truth. It had no reason to believe that Mr. Arc would survive the ordeal to share its secrets."

" _Talking Grimm,_ " Qrow muttered to himself. Then he paused. "Wait, you said the kid was a host at one point, right?" he said, clearly alarmed. "Does that mean he's walking around your academy nursing an egg-sac full of baby eight-legged Grimm?"

"No." Ozpin had, of course, taken that possibility into consideration himself. "Mr. Arc seemed certain that the Weaver couldn't lay it's eggs until it had forced him to eat. That was likely what was causing his _urgency_ to feed. Thankfully, he managed to avoid that."

"Thankfully. Doubt the kid would have come back from something like _that.._."

 _I would imagine not._ "In any case, the treatment of his wounds was extensive. It involved a number of tests, including a brain scan, which turned up nothing unusual. He didn't bring any threats back to Beacon with him."

"Good." Qrow hummed, considering that information. A few moments passed. He took another long drink and sighed. "Hey, Oz."

"Yes?"

"If one of those things ever gets into me, I want you to promise that you'll kill me. And be sure to make it as painful as possible, just on the off chance the Grimm can feel it too."

Qrow had injected his own special dark humor into the request - but it was still one with a great deal of weight. It was to be taken seriously. "You have my word," Ozpin stated.

"Good."

"It would best if we continued this conversation later. For now, I have a great deal to consider... Will you be arriving in time for the Vytal Festival?"

"You're still holding the festival? Qrow asked incredulously.

"Yes, I believe that what it represents is still very important. After all, we may not have much else to celebrate for quite some time. The students, Vale's citizens - everyone deserves this chance to enjoy themselves." _Because it is very possibly the last chance,_ he didn't say aloud.

"Yeah, I guess." Qrow grunted his acknowledgement, "Don't worry. I'll be there. We can talk more then." He paused. "Do you think the Council is going to announce these new Grimm publically, and risk a panic? Or are they going to keep the information under wraps, and let everyone stumble into this mess blind?"

Ozpin realized that Qrow was expecting him to know which would be the right decision. He frowned. At times, Qrow seemed to think he was infallible. A disturbing number of people did, as of late. It was a burden he wouldn't wish on another person. He didn't have all of the answers. That much really should have been obvious by now... "I can't say for sure what they'll do," he said, "Under careful scrutiny, neither of the choices seem all that sensible, do they?"

"No. I suppose they don't. See you later, Oz."

"Goodbye for now, Qrow." The scroll clicked off.

Ozpin lowered his head into his hands.

There was too much that needed to be done and not nearly enough time. There were too many possible courses of action, and somehow each and every one of them seemed to be... misguided in their own individual way. But doing nothing... would be even more of a risk. Ozpin sighed.

He hadn't wanted to choose the new Fall Maiden so soon.

* * *

Cardin sat at his desk, pen in hand, a blank sheet of paper laid out in front of him. For the life of him, he couldn't figure out why the professors still had the students writing essays while their Kingdom was under threat.

His team could have been out on the front lines, doing something of worth. This schoolwork bullshit was agonizing. Pointless.

Behind Cardin, Dove was seated on the edge of his bed. Judging by the sounds of pen scratching on paper, he was having a great deal more success with this essay than Cardin was. Russel hung from his own bed, upside down, staring intensely at his sheet of paper, as though he was trying to puzzle out some grand mystery. Cardin thought he was probably trying to remember how to spell his own name. Sky had appropriated the only other chair in the room and was seated in it backwards, balancing it on only the hind legs, whistling to himself. Unlike the rest of them, Sky was empty-handed. He might have finished his own essay hours ago, or he might not be planning to do it at all. It could have been either with Sky, depending on the day.

"Quit it with the whistling, Sky," Cardin growled. He wanted to finish this nonsense so he could get some sleep. He liked having everyone awake early for training.

Sky grunted. "My bad, boss." He stopped his whistling - and instead began humming to an identical tune.

Cardin's pen snapped between his fingers.

Dove chuckled. "Sky, I really wouldn't test my luck with him today. The Vytal Festival is coming up, which means the Vytal Festival _Tournament_ is coming up. You know what competition does to him."

"Oh I know, and I'm sure our leader will expect us to prepare _exhaustively_ -" Sky said, mostly for Cardin's benefit, grinning. "-only for us to get walloped by Nikos or someone in the first round, I'm sure. Cardin, man, you've been running us ragged for months, but some of these girls are prodigies. There's no shame in giving up."

"Well…" Cardin said thoughtfully, turning around as if to argue a point… only to instead kick Sky's teetering chair out from underneath him. But the prick rolled with the fall and caught himself gracefully, standing on his hands. Cardin glared daggers at him. "You only say there's no shame in giving up cause you're always looking for some excuse to give up. You're lazy."

Sky hopped to his feet and shrugged. "I like to think everyone needs at least one flaw."

"And I wouldn't use the word _prodigies_ ," Cardin added, ignoring him. "After everything I saw, I'd say they're more like… idiot savants. While we were all out in the wild, they managed to lose track of their supplies, lose track of each other, lose track of the Grimm we were looking for, and lose track of themselves. All on several different occasions. It didn't seem like they had any idea what they were fuckin' doing out there. Sure they can fight well, but otherwise they screwed up at every single step of the way and then stumbled into a success, mostly because of our help."

"So they aren't perfect like we thought. Hooray," Russel said without enthusiasm. He was still struggling to write while hanging upside down, and the blood appeared to be rushing to his head. "The Vytal Festival Tournament is just that, Cardin, a _combat tournament_. And you just said it yourself, they fight well. That's all they'll need to do to beat everyone else."

Cardin snarled, "And all we need to do is be better."

"You mean, work even harder?" Sky asked, feigning shock. "With the ridiculous training schedule that you put together - after Nikos swept the floor with us - I'm already one big bruise at the end of every day. We can't train even more. Think of my health."

"How do you talk so often and still never manage to say anything worth hearing?"

"We've all greatly improved-" Dove said, laying down his already finished essay. "-mostly thanks to Cardin threatening us with violence if we didn't improve – thanks for that, by the way, Cardin. But, egos aside, how much better have we gotten, actually? Personally, I'd like to see how we'd fare against team RWBY and the other members of JNPR, before we worry ourselves about Nikos. Let's make sure we're at least in second place before we start aiming for first."

Russel put on the nasty grin he always wore when he was thinking about fighting something. He enjoyed few things as much as he enjoyed armed combat - though only when he was winning, of course. "Knock those show-offs down a peg? Sounds good. Can I have the first crack at 'em?"

"I imagine that would go well," Sky remarked.

"You really don't think I could take them? The tiny one who's younger than us by two years? The spoiled brat who always wears a dress and heels? They can't be that great. I mean, we saved two of the strongest members of their teams during that last mission. Them and also that guy... uh... with the long hair."

Sky sighed. "You meant: Ruby, Weiss, Yang and Nora, and Ren. In that order."

"Who cares?" Russel grunted. "You only bothered to learn their names because you wanna bang the blonde one. You're planning on fraternizing with the enemy, you traitor."

Sky opened his mouth as if to argue, but then shrugged and conceded the point. "Hey, I can't help that I'm a hopeless romantic. I guess that makes two flaws... And, _fraternizing_? When did you learn such a big word, Russ?"

"Do you really want to do this right now?" Russel let his paper fall to the floor, drew his daggers from his belt, and flipped to his feet.

Sky smirked at that. "Always so quick to violence. You think I'm worried about those little knives?"

"We'll see how worried you are when one of 'em is stuck in your-"

Cardin, who had turned back around to work on his essay, and gotten exactly nowhere, threw his hands in the air. "Sky. Russel. _Shut the fuck up_. Both of you. And you can consider that an order. I'm _never_ going to get this shit done with the two of you flirting right behind me."

Russel paused mid-lunge and frowned, "Seriously Car-?"

"Seriously. Not another word." Cardin shot a look at the other problem child.

Sky nodded and offered a sarcastic salute.

"Good." Cardin grumbled, returning to his work.

He wasn't sure exactly what he'd been expecting. The silence lasted for maybe fifteen seconds.

Dove's scroll buzzed. He drew it out of his pocket, checked the display, and then laughed. "Hey, Cardin," he said.

Cardin didn't look up. "Hmm?"

"Sky says to ask you how you broke your nose during the Grimm hunt mission."

Cardin spun to glare at Sky, once again leaving his paper without so much as a mark on it. He'd been the only member of his team to come home with any injury, and Sky wouldn't stop bringing it up at every opportunity. It took every bit of Cardin's self-control not to open the window and see how far his teammate could fly. "I've already told you, a Beowolf snuck up on me, got in a cheap shot."

Sky began furiously typing into his scroll.

"Oh, for the love of- You can talk again!"

"Okay, great."

Dove spoke then, doing his best not to laugh, as he read the latest message to arrive on his scroll. "Sky says that he thinks you're lying about the Beowolf. He says, if one lousy Beowolf broke your nose, you would never admit to it, which means something even more embarrassing must have happened."

"Yeah, exactly right," Sky said, agreeing with his own point. "What did you do? Knock yourself out with your own weapon or something?"

This time, Cardin's wooden desk cracked in his grip. "I've changed my mind. Sky, stop talking again. And, Dove, if you read any more of his messages, I'll smash your scroll." He crumpled his - still blank - sheet of paper and threw it into the garbage. There was no way he was going to get any work done tonight. "You know what? Forget this. I'm going down to the training rooms." He stood, grabbed his mace of the desk, and stalked out of the room before his idiots could find any other creative ways to piss him off.

Yet, as Cardin walked down the hallways of Beacon, thinking, he only found himself growing steadily more angry. Why did Sky always have to be right? That perceptive, smug bastard.

He lifted his mace and inspected it, turning it over in his hands a few times.

Like Sky had said, Cardin _was_ lying when he said it was a Beowolf that had knocked him out - because if he told anyone what he actually remembered, they'd think he was out of his mind. _Jaune fucking Arc with glowing red eyes and black aura and claws._ Who on Remnant would ever believe that? Sometimes, Cardin wasn't even sure that he did. Surely, he'd tried to convince himself over and over again, surely what he was remembering couldn't have actually happened. He must have taken a nasty blow to the head and imagined the whole thing, like a fever dream. There was absolutely no way Jaune Arc was... What? Part Grimm or something?

If he suggested that, he'd be thrown out of Beacon and forced to check into a mental hospital.

Thinking about that possibility was how he'd - just barely - kept himself from kicking Arc's unconscious body out of the drop-ship on the ride back to Beacon.

And Yet. Cardin studied the side of his mace - only the one side - where the metal was warped, pressed nearly flat. His memories of the fight on the mountainside were fuzzy at best, but he distinctly remembered smashing Arc - or whatever he'd been fighting - in the skull with his mace, tossing him with the force of the blow. It was hard to forget doing something that had nearly broken your own hand. And here was the proof that it had really happened.

 _A blow to the head..._

It was funny how Cardin kept hearing all about Arc's awful _head injury_ from gossiping students in the hallways. A head injury? Could that just be a bizarre coincidence? He narrowed his eyes, looking down at his slightly bent mace.

Somehow he doubted that.

Cardin arrived at one of the training rooms and stepped inside, thumping his mace into his palm, relishing its weight. He knew he still needed to be... better, as a huntsman. He'd found that out the hard way... His ego was still bruised from the beating he'd taken. So, he would keep working. And as he did, he would keep an eye on a certain someone. If it did turn out that the bumbling idiot _was_ somehow a threat to humanity, Cardin would be sure to address the problem personally. He knew he might just be insane, but he decided that if he saw even a hint that he hadn't imagined what he'd seen on the mountainside, then-

 _Wham!_

With a casual flick of his wrist, Cardin's mace tore a training bag free from its chain and flung it across the room, where it exploded against the far wall.

 _Goodbye, Jaune Arc.  
_

* * *

 _ **End of Interlude I**_


End file.
